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.

So what better than an influx of apparently wealthy foreign retirees who not only buy a house (and a car and a washing machine, etc) but continue to bring in money from abroad 12 months of the year, keeping local businesses afloat and creating jobs.

So what is the Junta doing by declaring that tens of thousands of their homes could now be demolished?

Len and Helen Prior, whose house was famously knocked down in Almeria two years ago, actually had their case in the Constitutional Court in Madrid when the bulldozers went in.

Eighteen months later, the court ruled in their favour. Now the Junta is appealing.

After that, the Priors are free to sue either the Junta or the town hall of Vera. Or both. Either way, this will take the rest of their lives.

The problems regarding compensation are a nightmare. Many building companies and promoters have limited liability of just 3,000 euros and the ‘president’ is impossible to track down.

It is criminal that these pensioners should suffer in this way.

The problems regarding compensation are a nightmare. Many building companies and promoters have limited liability of just 3,000 euros and the ‘president’ is impossible to track down.

It is clear that some houses need to be demolished. They have been built in flood areas, dry river beds or other unsustainable places.

But given that the town halls mostly gave them permission, the homeowners must be compensated fully.

This modern European country, the chosen home for millions of foreigners needs an agency to protect, advise, inform and defend these poor homeowners – precisely because it is in everyone’s interest to do so.

Meanwhile, the Priors, two years on, are living in a garage. It’s a sad state of affairs.

Original Source – Olive Press