Benidorm appeals record €330m fine over land dispute that would leave the resort bankrupt

BENIDORM City Council has gone to Spain’s Supreme Court to challenge a €283 million compensation award plus €47 million in interest payments that could bankrupt the authority.

The money was granted in May by the Valencian Supreme Court(TSJCV) over the loss of building rights in the protected Serra Gelada Natural Park.

The award went to Murcia Puchades Expansion SL and Urban Urban Villajoyosa 2000 SL after a lower court initially gave them under €700,000.

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Interest on the TSJCV award dating back to December 2019 when the land was valued, means a potential pay out of €330 million, with the 2024 Benidorm municipal budget set at over €141 million.

Benidorm mayor, Toni Perez, described the TSJCV ruling as ‘nonsense’.

The council’s legal department has now filed papers with the Supreme Court in Madrid to ‘defend the interests of the city’.

The authority also pointed out that prior to May, every ruling over the issue had been ‘favourable’.

Despite a willingness from the two companies to negotiate a settlement, Toni Perez said that any talks would be inappropriate.

“Politicians cannot negotiate anything as it would be illegal and it is down to judges to make appraisals,” he commented.

Perez also rejected a scenario that taxes would go up for Benidorm residents if the council had to pay out the full compensation figure.

In May, the TSJCV overturned a lower Alicante court decision that the Murcia Puchades family should get a much lower sum.

The Valencian court took the view that the land had been previously been classified as urban land suitable for development back in the 1960’s.

Therefore it allowed a new assessment of its value which gave the developers what they wanted in compensation for scrapping the project.

The Murcia Puchades family had three plots totalling over two million square meters in the Serra Gelada

Their legal action started after Benidorm City Council voided urban planning agreements signed in 2003 between then-mayor, Vicente Perez Devesa and several companies.

The agreements were renewed twice in 2010 and 2013 by ex-mayor Agustin Navarro and left open an option to pay compensation to keep constructors out of ‘protected’ areas.