Alex Trelinski
AN AUSTRIAN family fighting the building of nine villas on their former garden taken away by an old land-snatch law, has won an temporary injunction to halt the project.
The lawsuit filed by the Wesenauer family claims that a new 2.45 metre-high wall ‘seriously’ impedes access to their home- Casa Langostina- in Campoamor.
It also states that vehicles used to transport food for animals on their farm are having trouble getting through.
READ MORE:
- Expats fall prey to tourist flat surge in Spain: Family is forcibly arrested on the Costa Blanca while attempting to block Airbnb-style homes being built on ‘their’ land
- Expat family chain themselves to a digger to halt new development being built next to their finca on Spain’s Costa Blanca – as Austrian ambassador lends his support
- Two decade-long battle continues over villa land grab on Spain’s Costa Blanca
The legal claim also says the construction is a major risk to Casa Langostina’s structural integrity, supported by technical reports over the impact of heavy machinery working next to it.
Two of the Wesenauer’s were arrested twice in May and June for chaining themselves to equipment to stop building work from starting.
Orihuela judge, Maria Teresa Martinez Soto, ruled that the promoter, Lideralis Empresarial en Desarrolloto, has to stop construction, even if they go through an appeals process.
The family has opened a series of legal challenges including demands for work to be stopped due to several swallows nests being affected- something that has been taken up by the Guardia Civil and the environmental prosecutor’s office.
They’ve also filed a complaint before the European Court of Human Rights which says their property was ‘stolen’ in 2004 under the guise of an illegal Valencian urban plan.
The finca was bought by the family in 1996 but four years later, they were told that they could lose a large part of their own land under Valencian LRAU planning laws.
The legislation allowed developers to take land for tourist home construction if it ‘was in the community interest’.
The law was deemed void by the European Union and struck off, leaving the Wesenauer family to claim they are ‘victims of an extinct law’ and that their ‘fundamental rights’ had been violated.
