The Andalusian ruling council has just approved a modification to the LOUA, the Andalucian land law, allowing illegal homes that haven’t been denounced to quietly be permitted. Three articles of this law will be modified.
If your illegal home is not in a special protection zone, nor in a dangerous area, has not been denounced or is not involved in an investigation, is detached on its own parcel of land and generally being blameless, and when sufficient time has elapsed since its construction (usually six years), will have any potential criminal charges prescribed. In other words, “when the timeframe for the restitution of urban legality has prescribed”
What this basically means is that if sufficient time elapses from the building of the home without anyone lodging a complaint, no charges can be bought against the owner and retrospective permission applied for. It’s basically the situation that existed back in 2002 before all this nonsense about making builders ask for permission and pay some sort of tax started. But remember that it’s only for isolated homes on parcels of land.
The process is also supposed to affect groups of homes which create a new urban settlement, but nobody seems sure of how this will work. The AUAN reminds me that a separate bill is winding its way through the legislative process for this.
Homeowners will be able to inscribe their homes onto the registro de la propiedad and legally be connected to mains water and electricity.
About 25,000 illegal homes across Andalusia will benefit from this move.
(Note: article updated to make the process of what is happening slightly clearer).
The parliament of Andalusia have NOT approved an amendment to the LOUA. The Ministry of the Environment and Territorial Planning have submitted a bill to parliament for its approval which is of course a positive step and a result of a lot of hard work by the associations AUAN and SOHA – but the bill is not yet approved and there is more work to be done.
Your description of the content and impact of the bill is also inaccurate but that will become clearer no doubt over time.
Hi Maura, you’re right that it wasn’t the Parliament, it was the Junta (misheard on the news, sorry) directly. However it takes effect as from today. Three articles of the LOUA are affected. I was referring to the impact of todays modification, not the proposed new law.
http://www.lavanguardia.com/politica/20150721/54433523351/andalucia-regularizara-mas-de-25-000-viviendas-en-suelo-no-urbanizable.html