This article has been copied from The Costa Blanca RTN.
Galicia Amnesty Gives Hope to Catral Residents
Contributed by Louise Clarke
Thursday, 25 February 2010
The Galician Socialists have decided this week to grant an amnesty to all the illegal houses in the region, built before 2003. The Partido Socialista de Galicia (PSdeG) party has decided to officially support the Ley de Suelo and as a result, the move has brought hope to the hundreds of illegal home owners in Catral. Despite rejections by former Councillor María José Caride, the motion to support the law was passed by a majority in the Galician Regional Parliament. It means that any house built without either a municipal or a regional licence before 1st January 2003 will now be given amnesty, whether it adheres to planning regulations or not. Sources at the Galician Regional Government estimate that there will be tens of thousands of homeowners who will benefit from this amnesty. But those houses that were built on protected
land will be excluded.
IRRESPONSIBLE
The agreement states that the houses built without a licence before January 2003 can be legalised by payment of 10 euro per square metre, so as with the situation in Catral, legalisation comes at a cost to the homeowner. Socialist Councillors opposed to the amnesty described it as “an irresponsible exercise” and argued that the PSdeG Councillors, who voted in favour of the law, were going against party policy and its official position.
Former Galician President, Emilio Perez Touriño, strongly criticised the reform of the law, due be written into the regional constitution next week with the view to implementation by mid March. A regional parliament spokesman told RTN “A document will be sent to all the municipalities to make sure that they are aware of the new reforms and it is then up to the homeowners to contact their own Town Hall to finalise the legalisation of their houses.”
NO LEGAL LIABILITY
Chuck Svoboda of Abusos Urbanisticos No! (AUN) told RTN “It could be a useful precedent of sorts and could help in many situations, although I don’t like the implications of a wholesale; amnesty. It lets the bad guys, i.e. the promoters, developers, Town Halls and speculators off the hook.” He added “The devil will be in the detail as the people in Catral have learned. They will get their homes legalised, perhaps, but at what cost, and to whom? The property owners will, no doubt, get stuck with the tab as the other tax payers won’t pay for infrastructure costs and many, if not most, of the developers and promoters turn out to be front companies with no resources and no legal liability once they go bust.” Chuck concluded “Town Halls don’t have any money and the developers’ bank guarantees, in many cases, are worthless. There are also situations where those who built houses discover that their dwellings aren’t even on property they own. What sort of amnesty will cover that? How can they ever get clear title or proper registration of their property? Galicia doesn’t have a very large non-Spanish population to prey upon, so I wonder how attractive this would be to the authorities in places that do have one.”
