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At this moment in time I feel that the town halls are getting away with illegal practices while it is the innocent home owners that are being penalised and indeed traumatised by these cases.
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In my view the town halls "were" getting away with it - past tense! I think what we are seeing now is the aftermath of an abuse of authority on the part of the town halls that existed nationwide.
Many of the culprits have been charged with corruption and are now on bail, awaiting trial.
The Vera demolition was just the J de A flexing its muscles. As a result of this, down in Almeria somewhere, I read that there had been a meeting between several town halls and the J de A and in order to regularise 1,000 of illegal buildings -
1. Those that could be incorporated into the PGOU's would be regularised as long as the infrastructure was provided (and paid for by the town halls or the property owners).
2. Those that where built on land where building could not be permitted (protected, dry river bed, etc.) would dissapear (yes, that was exactly the word used).
3. The remainder would be set aside for further consideration.
The town halls ageed to submit each to inspection, in order to place the illegal properties into these three groups.
In other words, in this case, the town halls are sh-----g themsleves and have "thrown the towel in" before they get made an example of like Vera.
Stuff like this must be happening all over. I am in Moraira. Touch wood, nothing like this has happened here yet.
In Benitachell, neighbouring to the south, the mayor, the deputy mayoress and a German lawyer were arrested, held overnight, testified before a judge and were reaeased on bail the next day for, allegedly, requesting payment of 15,000 Euros from a developer to re-classify his land in a PGOU revision.
In Benissa, to the south, the complex Jardines de Montemar is sitting, completely finished and unoccupied. Around 50 or so of the 80 apartments have been sold and the building is about a year behind. Earlier this year the local residents association claimed, at a public meeting, that the area was not classified for housing but "touristic interest".
It seems that an apartotel would have been legal but not viviendas. At this meeting, a town hall spokesman promised that Jardines de Montemar would never be permitted individual Cedulas de Habilitadad or Escrituras.
Everyone is waiting to see what happens!
I believe that this is going on all over the country and is so commonplace that the national press don't bother to report any more. In other words the Vera (and several other) demolitions have caused a standoff between the town halls and higher authorities.
There was a marvellous one, in Extremadura I think. A developer got permission for a big complex near a Spanish Military Airfield. Instead of building two floors they built FOUR and, in doing so, compromised landing a takoff height clearance. How daft can you get! In the end they had to demolish the extra floors!
What will happen in the end?
Obviously, properties that have been finished and sold will be regularised if possible. Otherwise they will have to be demolished.
What a mess! Bearing in mind the (now) diminishing population of Spain, there of probably enough stock (of resales and unsold buildings) the keep the (reduced) real estate industry fully occupied thorught the resession and 10 years after that - without building any more.
As early as 2003 the Government could see it happening, the banks could see it happening and nobody could do anything to stop the rot.
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Vera (Almeria) Demolition 
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