Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)MORE than two years after British couple Ken and Helen Priors’ Almeria house was demolished, a court has finally ordered them to be rehoused.
Vera town hall has been instructed to put the up Priors in a home comparable to what was torn down, or at least pay the rent on a house.
The court confirmed that the couple must be rehoused until their case against the town hall is resolved.
However, Vera council has already declared it will appeal the decision despite claiming it “will help the Priors” in the meantime.
The couple have reportedly found a suitable house and are now waiting to receive clearance from officials.
They are suing the authorities for 600,000 euros for bulldozing their home in January 2008 despite an ongoing judicial process.
Good luck Ken and Helen.
How very co-incidental and SIGNIFICANT ?? that this order was made by a Judge very shortly after Zapatero was taken to task by Marta Andreasen the British MEP in the EU Parliament when she lectured him on what a disgrace Spain were in the way they treated and were treating Property owners in Spain, demolishing their properties etc when they had in 99% of cases bought them in good faith but had been cheated and conned by the true criminals, the illegal builders and estate agents, the crooked lawyers and notaries and councillors and other authorities yet little or no action had been taken to trace THEM.
Why are you surprised Paul?
“Vera council has already declared it will appeal the decision”
The Spanish never admit when they are wrong. They always appeal. This is part of the problem of Spain’s culture as a whole – they never take responsibility, they just appeal, and re-appeal, and hope the plaintiffs die in the meantime. Meanwhile the idiots who created the whole fiasco go unpunished.
It looks like Germany and France are going to bail out Greece. Please can they come and run Spain…
Olive Press,
Why not check out the Prior´s progress, two and a half years after the demolition of their home.
Have they been rehoused?
Have they received compensation?
Or have the Spanisn authorities once again deceived the public with their concept of fairness.
A house next to the Prior’s was also illegal I recall, but it was owned by a member of the local Mayor’s family (yawn). That house, and other illegal properties, did not get knocked down. They picked on the elderly English expats first. That tells you a lot about how the Spanish think about English expats in particular.
Fred´s comments.
I think you will find, unlike some of the nearby homes, the Priors were in possession of all their documents, that should spell “legal”, not a reason for being picked out for demolition.
Guess where these unfortunate people are living? despite Judge´s rulings and press reports.
Alas having “legal” documents is often meaningless in Spain. You can ask a lawyer ten legal questions and get different interpretations, such is the mad legal system here.
You people have pinpointed all the arguments accurately but what are the next practical steps? Law and justice here are travesties and under Consumer Law would be seen as unfit for consumption/ purpose/function. It has been repeatedly noted that the law for one does not apply to the other; as the Law of Precedent does not apply in Spain, I am advised. I am asking whether the law of taing action Jointly and Severally can be applied in Spain. At least if one names names and takes action against these indivdual parties, the guilty parties’ night’s sleep might be less comfortable.
I have been told by friends from other countries that ‘we British are not angry enough; that we are too polite’ that we trust our governments too much to be likened to paternal uncles.’ I think there is much truth in this. The issue is not about being British or Spanish either; it is an issue of mentality and moral integrity. A bad apple in any barrel/ society must be recognised and removed. There is no alternative to this. So many of us are paying the ‘unfit’ to manage our affairs and these people need to be identified by name and removed.(In any country)and those blatantly corrupt should be sentenced at top speed and expelled from the group they are exploiting. If the Albox family are to have their house demolished will we all be there to stop the diggers? There’s value in numbers.
Poor Len and Helen Prior. There were just not enough people and not enough anger and too many incompetents running their lives for them.
Unfortunately they will probably get nowhere soon. They would be best advised to start more interviews on UK National TV, the breakfast shows, Rogue traders, the one show etc and then the Spanish will pay them off. Until they cause more bad publicity they will get nowhere. Don’t just demonstrate in Spain down at the Almeria Town Hall, take it international, think bigger and let them know what you are going to do. Get the AUAN to support you in these efforts.
Of course the Priors’ situation is awful (as are many others). I have two questions though. 1) Their initial acting lawyer must have known that the permission was dodgy with the land likely to be ‘non buildable’ so why didn’t he get a signed approval from the Junta?. 2) During the demolition the policía local were in attendance. They knew full well that the issue was under judicial review and so therefore the demolition was not legal. Why didn’t their acting lawyer make any attempt to ask the policía to stop the process?.