The Vera (Almeria) Demolition raises some important issues.
Probably the most important is that the Priors DID have a lawyer and it is reported that he advised them that the Junta de Andalucia would never carry out the demolition order.
They also had a Building License issued by the Town Hall of Vera and had an excess of 10,000 M2 of rural land.
The Junta de Andalucia actually had a court order, against the Vera Town Hall, declaring the building illegal within 10 months of the license being issued and the first demolition order within 12 months.
Because the Town Hall failed to comply with the court order THREE TIMES, the court finally ordered the Junta de Andalucia to carry out the demolition, which they did on Jan 9th 2008, 55 months after the date of the issue of the building licence but within 48 months of the completion of the building.
The Junta de Andalucia filed a statement to the Administrator of the Committee on Petitions of the European Parliament stating their reasons for ordering and carrying at this demolition which states as follows -
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The ruling declared the license invalid because it demonstrated the existence of a urban nucleus on land classified as not for urbanisation, having also been shown that the house was not designated for agricultural or similar purposes as specified by the law applicable to land not for urbanisation.
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In the final paragraph it was further stated -
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Finally it should be noted, that in the Spanish legal system, many mechanisms are provided for individuals who suffer damage or injury caused by third parties, being private persons or public entities, by exercising various legal actions that will allow them to win compensation. Among them, it is stressed, is the right of individuals to be compensated for the functioning of public administrations in the manner provided by Article 139 and onwards of Law 30/1992 of the Regimen of Public Administrations and the Common Administrative Procedure. In implementation of that provision, if the Priors consider that they have suffered losses or damages because of the invalid license, they may exercise the corresponding liability action against the Municipality of Vera for having granted the license declared invalid by the final judgement of the Court.
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My understanding is that there has always been a law restricting construction on rural land to only those buildings required for agricultural purposes.
For a smallholding the farmer obviously needs a store for tools and farming implements and these can be seen all over the countryside. For a vivienda the test always was if there was sufficient income from the land to support the family living in the vivienda and, if these parameters were not met, then the Town hall had no right to issue a building licence.
As we have seen, the same thing has been happening all over and there are 1,000's of illegal buildings. In many cases the Town Halls concerned are rushing to change their PGOU's (Planning Laws) in order to make them legal.
Reading between the lines and noting how quickly the Junta de Andalucia had its (very well researched) answer ready, it would seem that the Vera Demolition was simply a tactic to hurry all this on.
I am waiting to see if the Priors are compensated, perhaps this has happened already and the Town Hall has settled something out of court.
Most certainly they should be compensated by someone, whether it be Andalucia or the Town Hall because it would seem that they have acted in good faith, had a building licence etc.
Read the full series of articles:
Moraira-Info.com Articles: The Vera (Almeria) Demolition.
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