AUAN press release:
We are please to report that the recent change to the Criminal Code has resulted in good news for five British owned homes in the Rambla de Oria area in Almeria. (see article Europapress).
We feel that the change to the Criminal Code, as a result of a campaign by AUAN and SOHA, to require prior compensation for purchasers in good faith has given the courts the tools to deal fairly with homeowners who were the victims of unscrupulous promoters and careless administrations.
We expect that the courts will take the new legislation into account in future cases where the homeowners have made the effort to establish their credentials as purchasers in good faith. It certainly looks promising.
One point we would like to make is that simply being a foreigner does not equate to being a purchaser in good faith in the eyes of the court. The five home owners in this case employed lawyers to convince the court that they deserved this status. The new legislation exists but people need to invoke it.
As for the homeowners in this particular case, they are now free from proceedings, relieved of the stress, and can now set about obtaining an AFO certificate for their properties. ie. to have them recognised as regularised.
But AFO is still in the no-man’s- land of (jokey word) ‘alegal’ This needs to be changed – and smartly. The people who did the issuing of phoney /irregular licences are the illegal parties; not the property or the recipients. Let’s get the focus straight. AFO should not appear on any escritura or added document as it will rightly prejudice buyers and lower the value of their property which has been council-endorsed! What is needed is a ‘Special Dispensation’ Statement with no more limiting clauses for victims of these administrative and criminal abuses, explaining to potential buyers that Spanish law and administration failed its investors in Spain acutely (and is still in no great hurry to apologise, to compensate those abused and make good their losses to date ) and to explain that all blame lies with many levels of government’s lack of administration. It should concede that the original exploited buyer is free to sell at market value without restriction. Or compensate them all heavily now.