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Bulldozers set to destroy expats' homes
Last updated at 23:52pm on 04.10.06Hundreds of British families living in Spain were facing financial ruin last night after being told their homes were built illegally and face being bulldozed.
It is the latest in a series of threats by Spanish authorities to demolish homes built without planning permission.
Regional government officials sent shockwaves through the expat community of Catral near Alicante after stripping the town hall of its housing powers and threatening to disssolve the local council over the scandal.
The future of more 1,200 homes built on green belt land on the outskirts of the quiet farming community now hangs in the balance along with the retirement dreams of their mostly English-speaking owners.
Hundreds of the homes have been built inside a nature reserve, with many of them sold to expats seeking a new life in the sun or a holiday home.
The rest have gone up on green belt land next to farms and orchards to the south of Catral, whose foreign population has rocketed in the past five years following a construction boom in the area.
Esteban Gonzalez Pons, Director of Housing for the Generalitat Valenciana regional government body, warned: "The homes built on protected land inside El Hondo Nature Reserve will all be demolished.
"The future of the remaining homes will be studied on an individual basis.
"We've already taken away the housing powers of the local council and will take away its town planning powers and seek its dissolution as a local authority unless it recognises more than 1,200 houses have been built illegally and proposes solutions."
In a get-tough message to the region's other local authorities, he added: "We will not hesitate in acting against other town halls that break the law, whichever political party holds power."
Last night expats affected by the shock move were consulting lawyers to try to save their homes.
Many have invested their life savings - paying an average of 200,000 for three-bedroom homes with swimming pools they thought were legal. A local court is already investigating allegations property promoters bribed town hall officials into turning a blind eye to the building of green belt homes.
It is also probing the alleged falsification of property certificates.
Catral mayor Jose Manuel Rodriguez Leal has criticised the operation against his town hall as "politically motivated."
Expat Dennis Archer, who has bought a home near Catral with wife Pat, said: "Our house was finished on time and was very nicely built. "The problem our solicitors failed to notice was neither our home or the the others on the complex had planning permission.
"The local town hall are now threatening to demolish the lot, leaving us to try to recoup our losses from the solicitor or the builder. "Our dreams of a new life in the sun have turned into a nightmare."
Another expat, who asked not to be named, added: "I moved out to Spain with my wife and two young children and wanted to do everything by the book.
"The estate agents put us in touch with a local solicitor who assured us everything was fine. "Now we discover we're living in a house that has built illegally and is likely to be demolished.
"I invested most of my life savings emigrating. We face financial ruin."
Thousands of Brits and Irish expats have set up home inland from the Costa Blanca around Alicante in the past five years.
Small farming towns like Catral have seen their foreign populations rocket as the region has overtaken the Costa del Sol to become the number one spot for foreign residents.
But across Spain, thousands of foreign buyers have fallen foul of cowboy builders who build without permission and dodgy estate agents suspected of buying the silence of corrupt town hall officials.
Civil servants recently took charge of Marbella Town Council after the arrest of several key members of the local authority including its mayoress over a corruption scandal. Thousands of homes in the area are also threatened with demolition.
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There are estimated to be 1 million uninhabited new homes built recently, between Alicante and Gibraltar, all waiting to be sold. Furthermore a survey was completed in the past year that found 50% of the residences built between Gibraltar and Malaga are illegal.
- Roger Macnamara, UK
