A CANADIAN author has been left suffering from severe stress after a brazen neighbour illegally attached a whole new house directly onto his standalone property in Granada’s UNESCO old town.
Author Shawn Whitney said he could barely believe his eyes when he awoke to find builders literally connecting the new structure to his charming 100-year-old home in the historic Albaicin quarter, beneath the shadow of the Alhambra.
The illegal works on Calle Ajibe de la Vieja, carried out under the guise of a ‘storage room’ permit, have effectively turned the writer’s standalone property into a semi-detached house.
“First off, this is certainly going to slash my property’s value,” said Whitney, who has lived opposite the world-famous Alhambra palace with his wife and two daughters since 2016.
“But aside from the financial damage, it has been an absolute nightmare dealing with the contractor. My complaints were only met with threats.”
“For weeks on end we were being woken up by jackhammers at 7.45am, with the whole house shaking, and workers even let debris fall into my patio,” he told The Olive Press.
The ghostwriter, who has penned 14 novels, said he suffered months of insomnia as the local authorities repeatedly ‘stonewalled’ his desperate pleas for help.
“My doctor prescribed me tranquilisers,” he said. “The stress was overwhelming – dealing with the contractor on my own as authorities failed to respond.”
In one unbelievable escalation, the builders said they would erect a wall so high it would completely obscure Whitney’s spectacular views over the Alhambra and the Sierra Nevada mountains.
They even threatened to hack off his patio’s wooden beams, audaciously claiming they jutted into the neighbour’s airspace.
Land registry documents reviewed by The Olive Press confirm the neighbouring plot is only registered as a 1.5-metre-high storage space.
Under the strict 1990 special urban planning laws covering the Albaicin neighbourhood, all developments require rigorous special authorisation.
But despite the neighbour only holding a permit for a storage room, the contractor is instead erecting what appears to be a full-blown home.
Whitney’s legal team first filed an official complaint in January 2025, followed by frantic demands for action in February, March and April 2026.
According to sources, at least two council experts have filed scathing reports on the illegal construction.
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Even the project’s own architect is believed to have resigned in 2025 when he realised the contractor was not building a storage space, Whitney has said.
However, it took until May 2026 for Granada City Council to finally step in, sending the neighbour a letter ordering them to ‘restore’ the property to its authorised use.
Astoundingly, the brazen contractor is completely ignoring the town hall’s demands.
“This is absolutely maddening,” Whitney said on Monday. “How can it take so long for authorities to act?
“The builders must have received the council’s letter, and yet they were still working on the property this morning.”
He added that the contractor had even attempted to turn other neighbours against his family, falsely claiming the Canadians were ‘harassing’ him.
“My lawyer says he has never seen this level of incompetence from any council,” Whitney added.
Granada’s urban planning department has been approached for comment.
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