Spanish wrecking ball swings in again

December 18, 2009  •  Cadiz, Lead  •  1 Comments

(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

 Loading ...

AN uneasy standoff has formed in Chiclana this weekend as demolition crews moved in to demolish ten houses.

Over 50 police are on hand as council staff attempt to evict ten families living in houses deemed to be illegal in the town.

While all have been served with eviction orders it is the first time that any of the claimed 20,000 illegal houses in Chiclana are to be actually knocked down.

When police and demolition crews from the council arrived at 7am on Friday morning, hundreds of locals formed in solidarity to try and help prevent the demolitions in the Majadillas Bajas area.

One local resident Marisol Ayala told the Olive Press: “This is awful, truly awful. These poor people are going to lose their homes just before Christmas.

“It is so unfair. They had no idea they were buying houses on illegal land.”

All ten houses were built in the street known as Callejon de los Frailes without municipal licences and in an area deemed as non urbanizable.

They were all built around three years ago by the same developer.

It is understood that all the homes are owned by Spaniards, apart from one owned by a German.

A total of 2,200 houses in the area are said to have been built under similar conditions.

Most of the owners of the houses have received fines of between 30,000 and 120,000 euros.

The fines have led to the setting up of a platform in defence of the owners.

One English member of the platform Patrick Williams, an ex policeman from London, said: “It has come as a big surprise and seems very harsh.

“Everyone feels for them at this time of year.”

It is almost exactly two years since the home of Len and Helen Prior was demolished in Almeria. To celebrate the second anniversary of the demolition there is a party being held at their home next month.

Reader Comments »

Paul

December 19th, 2009 12:50 am

These houses were sold “en bloc” by a promoter AFTER a Demolition Order was served on him but instead of him carrying out the demolitions he SOLD the properties to the unsuspecting buyers – (WHO after all would buy a property IF THEY KNEW OR SUSPECTED it had a demolition order on it or any other such problem?)- and then HE DID what all crooked Andaluce Promoters and Builders do (and there are SO MANY OF THEM)- he simply disappeared. But why don’t the Policia de Chiclana or Guadia Civil AND Ayuntamiento and Hacienda trace him through his Carnet de Identidad or some other form of ID you may ask AND ARREST,CHARGE AND PROSECUTE HIM and try to get the money back for these people because if it was you or I an honest citizen and we owed a small amount of tax for example, then they soon would?
Well the answer to this is simple and is how the Ayuntamiento orders the Police to deal with people who claim they have been sold an illegaly built property and is how the Ayuntamiento (Town Hall) look at victims themselves. Why give yourself a little bit of work locating the real Criminal who has cheated up-to – as in this particular case perhaps 15 or 20 people and then you have to investigate those crimes and try to locate the money, take victims statements etc,etc when you can just avoid all this and knock the houses down and blame the owners for buying an illegal property and just to rub salt in the wound, give them the bill for the expense of demolishing the property? Who ACTUALLY wants to DO POLICE WORK,just ’cause we’re paid to? And don’t forget to wish them a Merry Christmas,Happy New Year, Felices Fiestas y Feliz Ano Nuevo on the way out on behalf of Santa Jose Maria Roman!

Name (required)

Email Address (required)

Website

Your Comment

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail

Add an avatar image beside your name. Signup for free!
Signing up for a gravatar.com account is FREE and EASY, and all that's required is your email address.