As the Junta clears it’s pre-election decks for battle, in the process legalising tens of thousands of homes across the region and making the owners pay for the priviledge (a scenario I predicted two years ago would happen… pat pat!), AUAN continues with the fight in order to prevent home-owners missold illegal homes from having to pay extra thousands of euros in new taxes.
A press release:
AUAN informs you that its President, Maura Hillen, its Vice-president, Brian Reade and its spokesperson Patricia Sampson, have been invited by the Provincial Delegate for Housing and Planning in Almeria, D. José Manuel Ortiz Bono, to a meeting in the Provincial Delegation in Almeria. The meeting will also be attended by the General Secretary for Territorial and Urban Planning, Dª. Gloria Vega González. He has indicated to AUAN that the objective of this meeting is to “inform them about the new Regulation that the Junta intends to approve”. The meeting will take place on Monday 21st March at 16.30.
Maura Hillen says “I appreciate the invitation, given that transparency in planning is good. However, before anything else is discussed , we will express to the Provincial Delegate and the General Secretary, the deep unease that has been caused by the recent statement of the Consejera about foreign residents apparently being responsible for the planning problems that plague this part of Spain. Among other things, we would remind the Consejera that the owners of 300,000 irregular houses in Andalucia, possible 1 million people, are not all foreigners. I ask “Does the Junta have no responsibility for the planning and real estate mess? Did these houses spring up over night? What have you done that has been effective in curing this major disease? “
She added, “Without prejudice to the legal responsibility that the Consejera has incurred, we are going to ask for an immediate apology and a public retraction in writing on her part”.
Regarding the remaining content of the meeting she said “To avoid wasting time we will be asking for details of the following: (1) How many houses are the subject of criminal or administrative proceedings that could result in a demolition order? (2) What is going to happen to these houses? That is to say, is the decree going to save them? (3) What conditions must be met to obtain access to electricity and water? (4) Will the decree allow houses on communal (unsegregated) non urbanisable land to obtain escritura? In terms of the numbers quoted, Maura Hillen indicated, “We think that the number given by the Consejera of 920 ‘problem’ houses gives the wrong impression, because we believe that it does not include houses involved in proceedings initiated years ago. We know, for example, that demolition orders exist against some of these houses. What is going to happen to them? And what happens, for example, to houses in the same situation as Mr and Mrs Prior, where the Junta has challenged a license issued by the local government?”