29 May 2008 3:21 PM:

Hi Everyone,
I just wanted to say a Thank You for your support and Jackie I will pass on your number to my Mum and tell her to phone you - Thank You. Her name is Maureen. I feel so bad for her she has not slept or been able to eat in four days in fear that they are coming to pull the house down!

They have no land line up there and her cell has to get a good signal, I will try just now. At this point she is wishing that she had stayed in England, I pray that I can help her in some way.

I phoned Nasa yesterday and they told me of a French company that do spot imaging of the world going back until 1998. So I will try and get an image of the property before she moved in to it.

I am ready to fight this and get lawyers on the estate agent, the lawyer and find the seller who is in England. 

The Spanish council can not do this to people it is against human rights!  Could you image Britain doing this to the people?  We treat illegal criminals better in our country than this, most of the people that they are doing this to are good citizens looking for a better life. 

I could understand it if the land was not hers,  or the home was not tasteful, I think she kept the look very Spanish and a darn sight better than what was there before. As far as them saying that the pool has to be filled in by the retaining wall debris is crazy, everyone has a pool in the area and she is willing to pay a fine for having it built. Thay said if she doesn't do it they will send someone and charge her!

Thanks Everyone and bless you all.
Sarah.

Thread: We bought a 2,500 sq m plot of land in 2002 in Estacion de Cartama

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28 May 2008 7:15 PM:

Hi Janny and all of  the others in this sad situation.

My name is Sarah and I am living in Houston Texas, I feel helpless being so far away from my mum. I found your forum this morning after spending two days on the phone to my mum Maureen who lived in Cartama. My parents sold thier home in England and in January of 2004 bought cash through an estate agent, a partially built home with a considerable amount of land. A lawyer was present at the signing of the home and my parents pressumed that everything was legal.

Mum moved into the house and had a pool built and made a support wall for the entry to the house, as the house is high on a hill and it was for it needed it for privacy and safety reasons. The builder of the pool told her that no permission was needed as long as he followed certain guidelines for pool building. The outside structure of the house was there already and she spent thousands finishing the inside of the house.

Like you she has now been given a whopping fine, told at one point that the house was never there when she bought it and she had to find evedence that it was.  We did get one ariel view and we are trying to get more evidence, although I feel they don't care if it was there or not. 

The Estate agent still lives in Cartama and will NOT help her. Thousands of Euros have been paid to lawyers that have made the situation worse and now they are threatening to demolish the pool and the wall , also maybe the house. The fine is close to forty thousand euros and the nieghbors around her also built pools and only were given small fines. I think that she is being victimised and singled out for some reason.

Someone has to be accountable for this, be it the estate agent or the previous seller. Her whole life savings has been put into this not to mention the hard work. I think that she is going to have a nervous breakdown. My dad is back in England taking a job at 64 yrs old to pay the fine that even when paid means nothing. The house is still illegal  if they pay it so what is the fine for and it can still be pulled to the floor.

We can pull together, a class action law suit to the estate agents, contact the British consulate to protect you, go to the British papers and television. Why don't you all meet in the village and pull together to find a solution to this. Can someone help my mum and meet her for a coffee? She is alone and not sleeping worried that they are coming for her home.

What should we do first, lets come up with a plan!

Regards,
Sarah.

 

Thread: We bought a 2,500 sq m plot of land in 2002 in Estacion de Cartama

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