The mayor of Carratraca, a tiny municipality in the province of Malaga, resigned yesterday after he refused to process some 100 court orders against buildings deemed to be irregular in the town. Many of the court orders could result in serious fines or the demolition of the buildings in question.

Óscar Roman, of the Izquierda Unida party, has been mayor of Carratraca for 10 years and his decision has left the town without a mayor for the moment.

It’s a funny place, Spain with so many levels of authority and so many public servants (‘funcionarios’ as they are amusingly called).

It is little surprise that we are all scared of doing the wrong thing, panicked by the ever-changing handbook, while every month more of us are said to be living in illegal houses.

Almeria is currently seeing unemployment of 30 per cent and the province is full of moribund pueblos, with little agriculture, industry or tourism, where the old are dying off and the young are leaving.

A Costa del Sol property company has won a dubious accolade in the Daily Mirror’s run-down of the heroes and villains of 2009.

Darragh MacAnthony’s company MRI was recognised for its ‘heavy-handed response’ after accusations that it ripped off customers.

The Mirror claimed clients paid MRI thousands for furniture that never arrived.

However, the company responded with a bristling statement. “I have forwarded your latest query to our lawyers Carter-Ruck,” it read. “I believe they are already dealing with matters relating to your previous queries and publication.”

Luis Caparrós, Provincial Delegate for the Andalucian Ministry of Housing and Zoning has said that there is a “precedent” for stopping the demolitions in Albox, and says it is up to townhalls involved how to deal with illegal homes in their municipalities, “according to the law”. The Courts must decide if homes can be legalised when the townhall and the Junta cannot agree.

The Junta does not knock down houses

Around 200 members of the public and representatives from urban abuse associations from across Spain turned up Saturday night to hold a candlelight vigil at the remains of the Priors home in Vera.

Helen & Len Prior’s home was demolished two years on orders of the Junta de Andalucia after their building licence was revoked. Helen & Len now live in the garage, which was not demolished.

The Reader has a really interesting interview with Nigel Farage, MEP and ex-leader of UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party) where he claims that British people have been dupped into thinking buying properties in Spain was safe, and that Britain is effectively powerless to defend the rights of it’s subjects under EU policy.

AUAN (Abusos Urbanisticos Almanzora NO) who are organising the march on Monday against the demolition of homes in Albox have confirmed that the march will go ahead, and that the response has been so good they have laid on extra buses.

The AUAN Website has details of where you can catch a bus, and of the revised route which has been reduced to 1km at the request of the police.

The public prosecutor has charged a man in Las Pitas, Cordoba, with illegally building a 150 square meter house on land he owned. If found guilty, he could be jailed for one year, fined 3,300 euros and expected to meet the costs of demolishing his house. The land is on archaeological protected land near the “Medina Azahara” monument.

Abusos Urbanísticos Almanzora NO the expat action support group trying to stop the demolition orders revently issued on eight properties in the town of Albox, Spain are reported to be considering an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

Working with the lawyers of the families concerned hope centres around the apparent lack of notification of the initial proceedings and as such:

The Izquierda Unida coalition, Andalucia’s third political party, has demanded that the regional government accepts “political responsibility” for the “urban abuse” in the Almanzora valley.

Furthermore, it has demanded that homeowners who bought in good faith “be compensated in full” for losses if their homes are demolished.

Government lost control of the planning process

You would have thought that if you had an escritura on your property in Spain, and that property had a building license, and that you were registered with your local town hall, and paid property and land taxes your house would be safe from demolition wouldn’t you? Well it seems that you have to think again, especially if you live in the Málaga province and deal with the Cártama Town Hall, as does Alain Duzant.

Vera townhall has said it is expecting the proposed demolition of a chalet in La Loma (Vera, Almería) on the 12st of January to go ahead as planned.

Notification sent

The Reader has seen the Order sent by the Director General of the Inspectorate of Zoning, Urbanism and Housing, Dª Ana Moniz Sanchez, in which she informs Vera townhall that the Court has ordered the execution of the sentence and orders Vera townhall to prepare for the demolition. The actual demolition team will be sent by the Ministry of Housing and Vera townhall will be asked to ensure they are allowed to carry out their job.

House prices in England and Wales rose for the sixth month in a row in November, the Land Registry says.

Prices rose another 0.9% last month, which means that prices were just 0.3% lower than a year ago.

The average home in England and Wales now costs £161,554 – £8,800 higher than at its recent low point in April.

The owners of illegal properties are reported to have accepted the Town Hall proposal to pay for the basic services they need in instalments

The owners of properties seen as illegal in Chiclana are reported to have now agreed to pay the cost of basic services for their properties, such as tarmacking, sewerage, street lighting and water supply, to allow their homes to be brought into legality, under local ordinances set out by the Town Hall. The owners had up until now been against such an agreement, but it’s understood from El País that the Town Hall, governed in coalition by PSOE, Izquierda Unida, and the PSA, will allow the owners to pay in instalments.

Lawyers are working against the clock to try and stop their properties being demolished as illegal

The AUAN association in the Almanzora Valle, ‘Abusos Urbanísticos Almanzora NO’, reports that it has now identified and contacted all of the eight homeowners who are subject to the demolition orders from the courts recently announced by the local Mayor. It’s understood that four of the owners concerned have already been served with the papers.

Britons who sold up to move to Spain are facing homelessness in the New Year after being told their dream homes will be bulldozed.

Police turned up on the doorsteps of nearly a dozen couples just before Christmas to serve them with demolition notices. The properties will be razed before the spring unless a lastditch appeal on human rights grounds saves them.

Eight expat owner home owners in Albox (Almería) face having their homes demolished in the New Year – because the original proprietors obtained building licences before building.

Just 11 building licenses issued in Albox since 2001

Council records show that since significant amounts of construction work began in the municipality at the beginning of the decade, the council has only ever processed requests for 11 building licenses – and all eight of the houses affected by demolition orders find themselves among those original 11.

An interesting sentence in the Supreme Court this week which considered that in the face of the ‘lack of action and discipline from the administration’, penal law can be turned to against the ‘town planning disaster’ which is destroying Spain.

The statement came as part of the proceedings against the ex Mayor of Andraitx on Mallorca, Eugenio Hidalgo, who claimed at the time, that he did not know that his own home was illegal, but whose four year prison sentence has now been confirmed by the upper court.

The company has applied for a three-month cushion to avoid a suspension of payments

The Polaris World property developer is reported to have applied to the courts for an additional three months to continue negotiating its debts with its creditors. The application was made on Monday last week, and should the court agree to the request, it would mean that none of the company’s creditors could apply for court intervention during that period. It’s understood from La Opinión de Murcia that the decision has fallen to Mercantile Court No. 2 in Murcia.

Three were served last week and another five are expected

Demolition orders were last week served on the British owners of three properties in Albox which have been ruled as illegal by the courts. Local Mayor, José García, has told the AUAN association, ‘Abusos Urbanísticos Almanzora NO’, that another five demolitions have been ordered by the courts, and he is legally obliged to carry them out. He has asked AUAN to arrange a meeting with the owners affected in early January, and the association has called on owners who purchased their home in good faith and have received a demolition notice to contact them urgently at info@almanzora-au.org with a view to arranging a meeting with the Mayor.