Illegal Homes (Again?)

From Sur in English here: ‘Some owners of illegal homes are still ignored by new law, says SOHA. While the campaigners for the legalisation of illegal homes say they support any initiative taken by regional government, they maintain that the owners are being forgotten’.

AUAN: a British family in Albox face demolition in 2018

That’s the new law designed by the current right-leaning Junta de Andalucía to ameliorate the problems caused by the ‘illegal homes’ rules. While there is talk of an appropriately exact 327,583 non-authorised buildings in Andalucía (just for comparison, the City of Málaga has 245,000 viviendas), we tend to consider only the 12,700 or so in the Almería interior, plus another 22,000 in the Axarquía area on Eastern Málaga. This is because they tend to have been bought in good faith by foreign buyers (other editorials are welcome to concentrate on the ‘illegal homes of Cádiz’ etc...).

Andalucía lost heavily when it demolished that one home in Vera in January 2008, as the owners, Len and Helen Prior, solemnly moved into the surviving garage that was on a separate deed, and proceeded to embarrass the hell out of the foolish politicians and benumbed rubber-stampers of the day (many of whom, of course, are still in employment) who were responsible for Andalucía losing untold wealth and jobs plus the chance to re-energise some of their moribund villages (a problem they still, uselessly, must face today). 

They discussed it endlessly in the British and German media.

They even talked about it on Zimbabwe TV.  

However, while the PSOE-A (who largely caused the problem of the 'viviendas ilegales' in the first place), eventually voted towards a resolution over the enormous number of illegal homes in the region (without escrituras and thus un-inheritable and un-saleable, with crippling water and electricity issues), joining with the PP-A and Ciudadanos, it now appears that the national government has called 'foul', putting the whole sorry affair back on the front-burner once more.

Gerardo Vázquez, legal advisor to AUAN and spokesperson for the National Coordinating Committee for Justice in Planning says “it would be terrible if the Spanish government attempts to impugn the Decree in the Constitutional Court, as appears to be the case. It is not only an environmental issue; we are talking about the most basic rights of people, the right to a home, to a residence and to a house; and these are real issues, not paper theories. It is not only the environment; it is people’s lives. I am sick and tired that people are dying without solutions. I do not understand the attitude of the government. Last week yet another of those affected, someone known to me, died without being able to obtain paperwork for their house. And I have been contacted by another poor lady whose house has been demolished, after cutting off the electricity to her house whilst she was on dialysis in the house, and this lady has nowhere adequate left to live. Please, we need to be sensible and work together to resolve these issues urgently”.

But then we have the environmentalists to contend with, as they relax in their comfortable apartments in the city, knowing with that particular satisfaction shared by zealots everywhere that their hostile indignation has once again turned Shangri-la into Gehenna.