The Protest against Threats to Property

There will be a protest march in Almería City on January 9th 2009 - a year exactly after Len and Helen Prior's house was demolished by the Junta de Andalucía. It's being organised by AULAN, AUAN (both anti-property abuse associations in Almería), Ciudadanos Europeos and others. This is our first big opportunity to show that the arbitrary treatment towards property owners must be stopped.

Find aulan dot es on the google for times and other details about the march.

There's a chance now to do something, not just about the Priors, whose house was bulldozed flat a year ago without compensation (or compassion), but to publicise the condition of many other home-owners who are, for one reason or another, at risk.
There are said to be 6000 houses in just a few towns in the Alta Almanzora which have been deemed 'illegal'. The mayors of those small towns presumably looked out of their town hall windows during the building of these homes... and saw nothing. No one reported to them 'Look Señor Alcalde, your cousin is building some dodgy casas and flogging them off to the Brits'. There are thousands of homes in other parts of Andalucía which are also under threat. Besides 'illegal homes', fraud, theft and lies, we have 'land grab'. We have unfinished urbanisations, SL companies that have 'gone bust' (for 3000 euros), off-plan homes that have never been started, deposits lost, lawyers working both ends, politicians using us as pawns and so on.
The British and other Northern Europeans have come here to retire. To bring money in from abroad. To provide jobs for the local townsfolk. To buy cars, furniture, clothes, food and a host of other things that help support local business. It should be a win/win situation for Spain.
Many Spaniards think so as well - they will be with us on the march on January 9th in Almería City.
Will you?

Here's the demolition of the Prior's home on YouTube...

I am very sorry I will not be able to attend but  I am much interested on knowing how it goes, please post it here.... and of course if you need suplementary legal support ( I am sure you already have good lawyers working with those organisations), please let us know. We have got an expertise in Real Estate Consumers law and have been working exclusively for this for almost 3 years now.

I fully agree that the residential tourism has been and will be one of the main economic sources for our country .We  all ( politicians, businessmen, lawyers...citizens) should be treating all related with that very delicate and carefully. That is the mission of Costaluz lawyers.... we keep battling for that every day.

Our encouragement and support from here.

Maria

Just watched the video Lenox.  It's very hard-hitting.  What a total nightmare those people have been through.

I will be driving down with a couple of friends.  Everyone who can needs to show their support for this.

The website with more info is www.aulan.es

Justin

I'm planning to join the march on the 9th.  

If not now...when will we stand up for oursleves?

So sorry I cannot be there but fully support the protest.

If there is a petition to be signed please let me know and I will add my name and comments.

We wish you all the best with the protest march and hope it makes an impact. Sorry we can't be with you but if you do get a petition going we would be happy to sign it and add our comments. Good Luck!

Sorry I can't join you on the protest, but my thoughts and good wishes are with you.

Pauline

I'm sorry that I will not be able to attend the march due to being in England but my thoughts will be with everyone who attends.

Hi all

just like to say a huge WELL DONE to all those joining the protest on the ninth. I feel it's so important for everyone who's able to, to join this, not just those directly affected.  With enough 'people power', those in a position to force change in basic regulation, common sense and justice, will be forced to listen, and that will have an effect not only on the many who have been treated so badly, but also Spains reputation as a whole with regard to it being considered a place accepting it's done much wrong, and is at least trying to make ammends. If that is seen by potential buyers as the case, then who knows?, it could lead to a growing confidence in Spain knowing right from wrong, and influence sales, prices, and the 'feelgood' factor when considering Spain as a place worth considering moving to.

If the majority are happy to sit back and watch the 'powers that be' in Spain, drag the country even further down the road of undesirability, by not regulating against the bad guys and giving justice to those cheated, then they only have themselves to blame when they find that come the end of reccession, they still can't sell at a reasonable price, because the ugly facts are now in the open, and to little is being done to force change for the better.

A Petition, initially addressed to the Prime Minister, will be handed in at No. 10 Downing Street this month regarding all the property abuses in Spain.  We need intervention from the British Government and the EU.  Even if you have no problems with property in Spain, please sign Our Petition noting your support.  There should be thousands of signatures, not hundreds.  Many thanks.

www.spanishpropertyscandalpetition.co.uk

I am so sorry I will not be able to attend the protest as I am in the UK at the moment and not able to come over.

This may well have been done but is it worth writing a letter of protest?

If so to whom should it be sent to?

Has anyone prepared a letter for this in Spanish and English that we could use as a pro-former?

Good luck on the day.

Phil

Suzie

Very true.  I really don't think enough people in Spain are joining in with the petitions or protests. It's easy to say, ''it's not my problem, i'm ok thanks''. I think what  many people fail to realise, is that by doing nothing, they are making the the situation worse for everyone in Spain in the long term.

I think it's plain to see that Influence to improve Spain's overall situation from the British government or the EU, will only come with large numbers.

PGM

i'm also in UK, so sadly wont be able to join in. Suzie is doing a great job with her petition, and is probably the best person to give you details.

We live in Holland and we will not be able to join the very necessary protest.

We do however fully support all and any action taken to remove the STIGMA from SPAIN.

In the so called Civilised Western World, SPAIN is without doubt the LAND of INJUSTICE.

I hope all those responsible are proud of their achievements.

Which is basically to become richer from cheating foreign investers.

Until their pockets are hit and ujstice seen to be done there will be no end to this fiasco.

Our heartfelt sympathies to all who have suffered at the hands of these corrupt officials.

Lord help us!

Leo

Unfortunately we are in England and will be unable to attend.

Our property near Sorbas is at risk; the situation is very confusing.

Good luck to all who can attend on the 9th.

Bruce & Penny.

,

After watching this you'd have to wonder why anyone in there right mind would buy property in Spain

I've only been in Spain 2 years and I've quickly learned that the law is what they want it to be. Recent example up here in Madrid, several highways needed to be upgraded due to dangerous conditions but because it was through a national park it shouldn't be developed, but the Madrid government decided that it would be great to turn the whole area in to housing. Opponents fought it and a judge issued an injunction preventing further work, guess what, surprise surprise the government simply ignored the court order and went ahead anyways.

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this but I figured that they'd only target British homeowners but I just read the other day they demolished a whole Spanish village, one that had been built over 60 years ago, I guess the government figures the way to get the housing boom back is to demolish all the homes so people are forced to buy the new unbuilt ones

Totally insane and typical Spanish!!!

Hi Rob

 It seems that in many areas democracy just doesn't work very well in Spain. What you decribe sounds more like the action you would expect from the old dictatorship, which is quite often the case regarding planning, justice, regulation, and the basic laws that we should be able to rely on. Who can you trust in power to do the right thing?

That post from you alone, speaks volumes about what we are up against trying to get the bad guys stopped and get justice for those treated so badly.

I don't want to come over as just another 'Spain basher', but far to many of those who hold power seem to  have their head firmly stuck up their ar*e, even compared to other EU countries!

What I don't quite understand is that in every country (read Northern Europe and America) they have laws which state how and under what circumstances the Government take your land (they have a specific word which I can't seem to spell for the life of me), including how much they have to pay in compensation. In this case because it was an "illegal" build I thought it was Madrid that instigated it, not the local government rescinding planning permission.

What I find so weird is I hear stories all the time of illegal builds and extensions which are grandfathered in. I would say the Spanish are targeting the British except for the fact they just ripped down a Spanish village. One that I should add was built long before the current laws came into effect.

Please forgive me if I am being simplistic but wouldn't a UK type Law Society sort out these injustices? If this happened in the UK the firm of solicitors that acted for the purchaser would face a professional indemnity claim and the possibility of being struck off for incompetence.

The buck has to stop somewhere, how can the purchasers be expected to know that they are buying an illegal property? The Spanish legal system would make an ideal subject for an episode of Monty Python, as would it's estate agents business practices. The Spanish economy is on it's knees and these foul practices still continue, Spanish building workers along with employees of associated industries are without work and the Spanish authorites still expect stupid folk to buy property that they know that they will eventually demolish.

Its time to join the real world Spain, you are hiding inside an all embracing single currency that is about to implode, you need all the financial input that you can get but still run your country on the lines of a Mickey Mouse South American dictatorship. Perhaps you moved on too quickly post Franco but still hung on to a legal system that Don Quixote would have been familiar with.

Law in Spain regarding expropriation is Expropriation Act, dated  the 16th of December of  1954, and  of course there is a legal procedure of fixing the compensation price( Justo precio or Fair price) :