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.

Many people will consider the recognition that so much real estate development is indeed a disaster has come too late for Spain, but it surely is a landmark for the court to consider that as the administration has not acted, penal law can.

There are items in the Spanish Constitution which protect natural resources and the environment, with the idea of protecting and improving the quality of life, and they note that penal charges can be brought against those who do not respect this.

Now the Supreme Court considers that citizens in general are ‘victims’ from such developments, noting that one single building can represent a grave attack against the landscape.

It was beyond the remit of the Supreme Court however on this occasion to consider the rights of the individual who, though poor legal advice or none at all, has been duped into buying property in such an illegally-built development.
The case of Len and Helen Prior in Almería immediately comes to mind, and note here too the Constitutional Court has ruled that the order which led to their home’s demolition was itself an illegal one. The Priors were denied their right to effective judicial protection.

And remember too the damning EU report from Dutch Green Euro M.P., Margrete Auken, who has made it more than clear just how extensive a problem real estate irregularity is in Spain. We can only lament that the call in her report for EU funds to Spain to be frozen until something is done was not a legally binding one.

Three different sources then, all agreeing that things must change, but meanwhile the local and regional administrations appear to go their own merry way doing little or nothing, or, perhaps worst still, cheery picking which buildings should be pulled down. Meanwhile judges at a local level still fail to stop even more illegal building and different levels of government disagree about what is or is not illegal anyway.

While this mess continues more and more foreign investment in property will move elsewhere, faced with the legal uncertainties and bad press left by the building bubble burst.

Clear general and well explained actions are urgently needed and then must be enforced, but I fail to see how such actions will ever be coordinated across all the bodies involved.

It would be nice to think that the Supreme Court statements this week will lead somehow in the right direction, but I somehow doubt it. At least admitting the problem exists must be on the way to doing something about it. Could a development ombudsman be appointed I wonder? (Via Original Source)