My husband and I own an apartment on Medina Elvira 23. We visit our apartment regularly and are in touch with most of the residents and other owners on Medina Elvira. We are involved in the criminal case in Granada. I thought it might be useful to give an overall update on the current situation with the criminal case, the state of the various developments, services etc. for anyone with an interest in what is happening on Medina Elvira as a whole.
Criminal Case: There are 7 accused, including officials from Atarfe Town Hall and the developers. The developers are accused of fraud, and the Town Hall officials are accused of planning crimes. The prosecutors office has submitted their indictment and is seeking fines and jail terms for all, and terms of disbarment from public office for the Town Hall officials. The prosecutor is also asking for the occupation licences to be annulled and compensation for those who completed purchase on properties (I understand that in Spanish law if there is no licence then any purchaser has a right to cancel their purchase contract). Currently the indictments from all lawyers on the prosecution side are being prepared and submitted, once these statements have been completed then the defence lawyers will start to submit their statements. Only when all this is done can the trial phase start. We are told that it may take the rest of this year for all submissions to be made. Our lawyers are representing 41 owners as 'harmed persons' in the case, the majority with properties on Medina Elvira 23, a few on Fairways and one in Medina Suites. There are a couple of other lawyers representing other people on our side of the case although we are not sure what their exact involvement is. I would welcome contact from anyone else involved in this case.
General situation on Medina Elvira:
The Golf course and club have been closed for well over two years, having gone into liquidation. Part of it was built on protected land, and it is of course part of the criminal case, so although on a couple of occasions prospective buyers have been seen looking at the Golf Course and Clubhouse, it seems unlikely that it will ever reopen. Currently a local farmer is using the land to graze horses. The clubhouse has been broken into and vandalised on several occasions.
Main services for the 'resort' remain uncompleted. The Mayor of Atarfe found some money to complete the pump houses for the sewage works last year, but as yet there is no sign of these becoming operational and we believe that the water company is reluctant to take them on with so few occupied properties. Without completion of the sewage works, it is impossible for property owners to contract for a water supply. These are the main reasons that the licences of occupation should never have been issued. In Spanish law the licence can only be issued when all main services are finished. Currently the Community of Owners for Medina Elvira 23 has a temporary contract for water supply, but only by court order, for which we have to seek renewal every 6 months. The water company, Aguasvira, cut the water supply during the summer of 2012 and we had to go to court to have it restored. This temporary contract is for the water supply for the whole of Sector 20, which includes Medina Golf, Medina Suites and Fairways as well as Medina Elvira 23. There are ongoing problems with leaks over a wide area, sometimes due to theft of equipment and/or misuse of the supply, which the few residents and our maintenance man have to deal with as best they can. There is no maintenance of the roads and no street lighting. The developers should all have paid into a central body (E.U.C) for management of services on the resort but this account has been embargoed due to debt. The Mayor has tried to resurrect the E.U.C.with two meetings held in the last year, but with the developers all in bankruptcy none of the funding banks want to put any money in.
The Mayor of Atarfe is one of those indicted for planning crimes, so we suspect his motivation to try to improve things on Medina Elvira may be based on self preservation.
Robberies and vandalism have occurred all over the resort. The Guardia Civil have made many arrests and do patrol regularly but it is impossible to keep theives away.
The developments:
Lagos de Medina Elvira is a CostaInd development at the far end of the resort. There is no community forum on Eye on Spain for this development. I have seen one apartment advertised for holiday rentals on the web, but this is probably just an old advert and there doesn't appear to be anyone living there. The development appears well constructed and is kept secure, with alarms fitted to many of the windows. We have no contact with anyone involved in this development.
Tee 17 is a Peninsula development, between Lagos de Medina Elvira and the C.U.M.E. college. It has never been completed, with a substantial part of the building was left without any external finish. There is no sign that any internal fix has ever been started. The development has some security, with fences all around it and someone on site in one of the apartments who told us he is there for security. We think he is connected to the builder who is protecting his investment. There are still cranes standing, it just looks as though the workers left one day and never came back. The garages are permanently flooded. I am aware of at least one person who has successfully recovered their deposit.
Medina Golf was originally a Peninsula development but appears it was sold on at some stage to Nadalsol who then went bankrupt. It looks as though it was more or less completed, with boilers installed etc., but then abandoned. There has never been any security put in place and the buildings have been ransacked over the last three years, with anything of value being stripped out. All of the heat exchangers have gone from the boilers, and the Guardia Civil arrested a number of people last summer making off with window frames. The transformers have even been stripped out of the electricity cabinets, no mean feat. I'm not aware that a licence of occupation was ever issued or that anyone completed purchase there (I hope not!) but a number of people have take legal action to recover their deposits, some successfully.
Medina Suites is a development built by Bareo who have gone into bankruptcy. It is directly adjacent to the Golf clubhouse and a licence of occupation was issued and at least 4 apartments purchased. We have only been able to make contact with one owner, who is involved in the criminal case as one of the 'harmed persons'. It appears from information given to us by a local councillor that this development was built on protected land. There have been problems with robberies here.
Fairways is a Peninsula development and a licence of occupation was issued. At least 8 apartments were purchased, possibly a few more. There are some permanent residents there who have taken security arrangements into their own hands to make themselves secure against theives and vandals. Most of the current owners are involved in the criminal case as 'harmed persons'. I am aware of several people who successfully recovered their deposits on apartments in Fairways through court action. We would welcome contact with anyone who has purchased a property there who is not yet known to our group of owners.
Medina Elvira 23 is a Peninsula development and a licence of occupation was issued. It is the only develpment which has a functioning Community of Owners. Approximately a quarter of the apartments are in ownership. More were sold but have already been repossessed by the bank. Most of the owners are involved in the criminal case as 'harmed persons'. We believe we are in contact with all of the current owners but would welcome contact from anyone else who has purchased a property there.
Peninsula Project Management went into bankruptcy in 2012 and our lawyers have been informed by the bankruptcy administrators that they are now in liquidation and the unsold properties will soon go back to the bank (Cajamar), although what 'soon' means in legal terms - the bank actually registering title at the land registry - could be a fairly long time. We are unsure what the long term outcome of this will be due to the criminal case, if the licences of occupation are annulled then the properties will be unsaleable. Any revival of the resort would depend on all of the funding banks working together to invest in the services needed to obtain occupation licences. However there seems to be a recurring theme of demolition orders being issued for illegal property even where legalisation would appear to be relatively simple to achieve. This has happened recently in Almeria, where individual houses have been demolished without compensation for the owners, and we have seen a case of a luxury development in Extremadura, which appears to have been largely completed, where a demolition order has been confirmed by the supreme court despite appeals from the regional government.
Anyone with any information not included here, please make contact either by reply or via p.m.