An interview in today’s La Voz from Josefina Cruz, the Andalucian Minister for Public Works & Housing, makes for fascinating reading. Of course, the interviewer couldn’t be bothered to ask the right questions, but if you read between the lines it’s obvious that the process is going to be a large and expensive one. She has raised the subject of the Guild of Arquitects – I’m willing to bet that this means that all homeowners are going to have to pay [through the nose] for their plans to be stamped, and if they don’t have the original arquitect plans, they’re stuffed [and will have to get new ones drawn up]. Notice she always says the homeowners, and remember that she’s down on record as saying that anyone who bought an illegal house deserves whatever she decides to do with them.
Anyway, here’s my translation of what she says:
LV: What is the current situation of the illegal homes in the Almanzora?
JC: We are currently working on the new law which we hope to pass in the autumn.
LV: Once the law is passed, what will owners of illegal homes have to do?
JC: Every owner will have to go to their townhall and present a document which firstly must locate the house, when it was built, and its charactaristics. Each home legally built has [it’s plans] passed by the Guild of Arquitects who ratifies that [the plans] pass current building norms, and in these homes we do not know if they were built with a project or not, so in order to give an authorisation to use these homes we must be sure they were built to current standards of safety and legality and environmental standards. We must remember that the Administration has an important responsability from the beginning, above all the townhalls who must have a document in which it can be demonstrated that the building complies with the minimum safety standards necessary for the health of the occupants.
LV: And what will happen with the services?
JC: They [the owners] must pay for the cost of urbanisation [and connection] of utilities, and this will mainly be via the route of self-sufficiency, as it is impossible to extend the utility network throughout the province, although of course when the home is near a pre-existing urban centre, it may be possible to connect them to the network.