HUNDREDS of expatriates living in Spain will take to the streets this weekend in protest against the ongoing housing abuses taking place across Andalucia.
Spaniards and Britons alike are set to unite in the town of Chiclana to vent their anger at local government housing policy.
Some 20,000 homes within Cadiz province have had their licenses revoked and are now on the demolition list.
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Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)
Please can you print the list of areas that are on this list for demolition?
What you are implying, if true, would be the equivalent of Mugabe’s land grab and normal people could be provocked into the most extreme reaction. The statement above is the sort of thing that starts massive civil, violent unrest. I suggest you make sure you have got your facts right, back them with some evidence otherwise you may be held to account.
The demonstration in Chiclana is about the price of urbanization. Some say that is 25,000 a house. This against the backdrop of companies being charged with price fixing and rumours that Junta Andalucia have already paid Chiclana the money to urbanize, makes for a lot of worried people.
PLEASE JOIN THE DEMONSTRATION TOMORROW IF YOU LIVE IN THE OUTER PART OF CHICLANA AND HAVE A PROPERTY THERE.
The Meeting for the Demonstration is at 10.30am at the Plaza de Toros(the one situated farthest away from La Longuera)tomorrow, Saturday 21st November. It is in protest against the exhorbitant charges that the Oficina de Urbanismo have announced they are going to charge to Urbanise the areas surrounding Chiclana. The costs vary between approx. Euros 30,000 – 141,000 depending where you reside.
ALL efforts by the PLATFORM (The legal association representing many neighberhood associations and therefore thousands of people living in the outskirts of Chiclana of all Nationalities)to speak with the Mayor,Sr.Roman and discuss a positive way forward agreeable to both sides have met with with a total refusal to talk by the Mayor who states the Urbanization will go ahead come what may, whether people can pay or not, the matter is not-for discussion!
The Mayor and his Council wish to install 15-18 metre wide avenues in place of the current roads/lanes you now have with up and down traffic lane, cycle lanes, pavements.Also there are to be mains water and sewage removal.Drinking water should be a basic right.I have been paying IBI for 4 years yet receive NO mains water or sewage removal. What am I paying for? What happens to that money?
The Town Hall coffers are empty which is why the Council CANNOT charge these vast amounts like a canon by adding so much extra each month onto utility bills over a period of say 25 years, having put down a reasonable deposit. Chiclaneros previously paid money to the Council about 12 years ago when Urbanisation was muted-but never proceeded with and that money wasn’t returned and the depositors wonder where it went…we can only guess?
PLEASE SUPPORT US AND YOURSELVES TOMORROW?
Further to the above I would like to add that in addition to the costs quoted there are “hidden extras” from the Council by way of fines and charges to be added on for example if you do not agree to be Urbanised at the outset along with everyone else but change your mind (you can only do this within a 2 year time scale according to the Council) you would have to pay a “fine” of an extra 25% of the amount costed.
Also ALL AMOUNTS IN TOTAL have to be paid BEFORE ANY WORK COMMENCES, ie. the 30,000 – 141,000 euros and NO property will be legalised until the final payment is made and the whole amount MUST, REPEAT MUST BE PAID WITHIN 2 YEARS. YES, the COUNCIL ARE GIVING PEOPLE 2 YEARS TO PAY THESE PROHIBITIVE SUMS OF MONEY or may threaten to claim there properties, sell them for a song,take cash for the Urbanisation and give what’s left to the ex-homeowner.
The people want Mains water,Sewage and Rainwater removal at a “REASONABLE COST” and with a “REASONABLE TIME-SCALE TO PAY” !
This totally contravenes basic human rights laws, to which Spain has signed up to. In a parallel universe of Spain of course. Get good lawyers; launch a class action lawsuit via the court of human rights.
Did people know that Mijas currently has 8000 demolition orders pending!?
Not wishing to sound impertinent Fred but exactly what are you referring to. Can you be more specific and maybe I can enlighten you?
It is an absolute waste of time taking legal action in Spain; you need to go to a higher authority. Costly, and will need a lot of support, but probably more worthwhile in the long run. If you are not the getting basic services that you mentioned, like water and sewage, and yet are paying taxes for a (legal) property then you are having your human rights breached are you not? That was my point. Is your house legal? Clearly, if not, the local authority will just say we cannot provide services to an illegal property, so I assume this is not the case?
Regarding Mijas, which I know is not in Cadiz. The title of this article is “ongoing housing abuses taking place across Andalucia” and so I just mentioned Mijas in passing since a resident there told me yesterday that there were many thousands of demolition orders in existence and I could not believe the number.
Sorry to disillusion you Fred but yes my house along with all the others ARE illegal. It’s the old, old story of Brits, Spaniards, Dutch,Germans etc,etc being conned by the Spanish Building bastards.You buy your home through the Estate Agent, English Promoter explains it all, what reason do you have for thinking it’s illegal. You’ve come from a country where there’s no such thing. Then you go to the Lawyer who’s no doubt in on it and the notary who’s probably in on it. Money passes under the table, you question this and you’re told this is because of ‘tax’ and if you don’t do this ‘you’ll never buy a house in Spain, confirmed by the female English Promoter’ so it all goes through and then you find out after all the problems and join the Club with all the members!
Sorry to hear that. It is a truly disgusting state of affairs. The hard thing to get to the bottom of if is the estate agent, lawyer and promoter colluded in all of this. I would be inclined to believe they did. That would be the real evil, since they are the convincers who push the sale through (as all benefit). It’s like a chain reaction from the developer onwards.
Spain’s housing boom and all the fall-out must surely rank as one of the biggest corruption cases in the existence of this planet. It must run to billions of euros if the truth be known.
There are various home-owners associations who are fighting to sort out these property problems which have done so much to destroy people’s lives and, at the same time, trash Sapin’s reputation internationally. Problems vary from ‘Land Grab’ to ‘illegal urbanisations’ to corrupt town halls to bent promoters and their 3,000 euro property companies.
See the anti urban-abuse ‘AUN’ website at http://www.abusos-no.org/ which has now started a national federation called ‘FAUN’.
Just for added info Fred & Lenox although you may both already know, Margarethe Auken MEP along with Michael Cashman MEP spent a large a large amount of time in Spain last year inspecting the many allegations and problems alleged and aimed at the Spanish Building & Construction Industry and put together an in depth report highlighting these problems, those that were responsible, those that were making large amounts of money out of them and who were suffering from the chaos and deceptions and frauds being committed by those involved. They submitted the report to the EU Committee President both hoping and assuming he and his committee would withold further funds due to be released to Spain – an amount of some Euros 171 Million UNTIL the Spanish Government took action AGAINST those involved in these Property Scandals, Frauds etc which it is believed included Mayors,Councillors,Planning Officers,Lawyers,Notaries and even MP’s among the suspects involved.This was the third time Spain had been warned about its ‘Property Industry problems’ within 8 years and they felt the EU President and Committee MUST take action themselves THIS TIME as Spain had failed to do anything when ‘let-off’ previously. But NO, the EU President didn’t even call the matter instead saying there was a technical problem with it and that time had run out before it could be submitted, so Spain had escaped yet again. One can only wonder by how many zeros the Presidents Bank Account grew the next day?
To add, the Chiclana Council take our money for IBI for which we receive rubbish removal only.
Paul, I commented earlier on the terrible lack of EU decision making on this matter. It’s a disgrace. The mayor of Sayalonga is about to spend a year in prison btw.