How many days do you have left to appeal?

This calculator applies Spanish administrative law deadlines as set out in Ley 39/2015, de 1 de octubre, del Procedimiento Administrativo Común de las Administraciones Públicas. All deadlines in Spanish planning enforcement proceedings are counted in working days (días hábiles), not calendar days. Saturdays, Sundays and Spanish national public holidays do not count.

The count starts the day after you receive the notification. If you sign the acknowledgement of receipt on a Monday, the first working day of the deadline is Tuesday. If the last day falls on a non-working day, it is automatically extended to the next working day.

The usual deadline to submit an appeal at the hearing stage (trámite de audiencia) is 15 working days. For a reconsideration appeal (recurso de reposición), it is normally 10 working days, though this may vary by region.

If you do not submit an appeal within the set deadline, the Spanish council will resolve the enforcement case without hearing your side. The draft resolution becomes a final decision and the penalty becomes definitive at the administrative level.

You may still be able to lodge a judicial review (contencioso-administrativo) before the courts, but this is significantly more expensive, slower and less effective than having submitted an appeal within the original deadline.

The conclusion is clear: submitting an appeal within the deadline is the cheapest, fastest and most effective option. Submitting nothing is effectively accepting the council's proposal.

Yes. The council has a maximum period to resolve the enforcement case. If it does not resolve within that period, the case expires (caduca) and must be closed.

Resolution periods vary by region but generally range between 6 and 12 months from the opening of the enforcement case. This is one of the defence strategies we analyse in every case we handle.

In addition, planning infractions also prescribe (prescriben). Minor infractions prescribe after 2 years, serious ones after 4–6 years, and very serious ones after 8–15 years, depending on the regional legislation. If you can demonstrate that the works predate those periods (for example, using historical aerial photographs from the Spanish PNOA database), the infraction may already have prescribed.