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20th January 2005
EU Takes Increasing Interest In Valencia
Land Grab Abuse
The controversial LRUA "land grab" law in
the Valencia region of Spain has seen thousands of people - many from the UK
and other parts of Europe but also Spaniards - lose their homes and land to
developers who use loopholes in the law to do this with little or no
compensation being paid. An amended version of LRAU called LUV seeks to prevent
further abuses, but opponents of LRUA say it offers little extra protection. It
may take European Union intervention to prevent further
abuses. |
Last November, the
European Parliament appointed French MEP, Janelly Fourtou, to draft a
resolution regarding the controversial LRAU “Land Grab” for debate in
the New Year.
The appointment follows a European Parliamentary
fact finding mission in May 2004 that was highly critical of the way the LRAU
law (Ley Reguladora de la Actividad Urbanistica) was being implemented in the
Valencian region of Spain.
Land in Spain basically falls into three
categories - urbanised, land that is suitable for urbanisation and rural - and
it is possible for land to be reclassified by local councils, just as it can be
in other countries including the UK.
In the Valencian region, and
particularly along the Costa Blanca coastline, speculators were buying up large
areas of scrub land cheaply, hoping to cash in if the land was reclassified as
suitable for urbanisation in the future. Such speculation often stood in the
way of the provision of cheaper housing, schools, hospitals and other necessary
infrastructure.
In response to this, the Valencian government
introduced the LRAU in 1994 (similar laws were also introduced in other areas
of Spain where regional authorities have jurisdiction over planning matters).
It allowed councils to take up to 70% of land that is needed for
“public or social benefit” without compensation or for a fraction of
the market value.
What’s more, given that any development will add
value to what was previously classified as rural land (and therefore of low
value), the landowners also have to contribute towards the cost of any new
infrastructure required including mains water, sewerage and new
roads.
It’s worth noting at this point that similar laws
apply in the UK. When the government issued compulsory purchase notices to buy
the land needed to build the new towns of Milton Keynes, Warrington and
Telford, it did so at the going market rate for agricultural land. Not at the
rate the land would be worth when designated as suitable for property
development.
However, in recent years there have been an increasing
number of claims that the LRAU has been abused by property developers and some
town councils looking to make money out of rapidly rising property prices.
A loophole means that the law can be applied to even small plots of
land, even to the land that one property sits on.
Thousands of ordinary
people, many from the UK and other parts of Europe but also Spaniards, found to
their horror that developers could “urbanise” the land on which they
lived and were demanding both land and money towards the cost of any new
infrastructure.
Owners affected by such plans have just 15 days to set
out an alternative plan and there is no appeal procedure. It’s not unknown
for developers to submit plans at times of the year when many holiday homes lie
empty, thereby making it almost impossible for homeowners to draw up an
alternative.
The report prepared by the MEPs who visited Valencia in May
described LRAU as “a serious abuse of the most elementary rights of many
thousands of European citizens either by design or by deceit".
In August
2004, The Daily Mail featured the story of ex-RAF squadron leader
Danny Loveridge and his wife Val who in 1994 bought a farmhouse on the
outskirts of the town of Benissa, about an hour north of Alicante, half an hour
from Benidorm.
In 2001 they received notice from the town council that
they would have to give up most of their land and even part of their house to
make way for a new industrial estate.
"We owned 1,650 sq m,”
Mr Loveridge told the newspaper. “They claimed all but about 500 sq
m, including part of our house. We were given a token £4,500 for the
inconvenience and about 400 sqm of nearby scrubland, which was of no use."
"We went away for three weeks. When we got back the end of our home had
vanished," added Mrs Loveridge. "They had demolished our kitchen, a
bedroom and bricked up entrances. Then we received a bill for £13,000
they said was our share of the cost of building a new road, sewerage and street
lighting for the estate."
The Loveridges lived in what was left
of their house for a further six months before selling up for £90,000.
In total they have lost around £200,000.
Unfortunately,
the Loveridges are just one example of thousands of lives that have been
devastated by the LRAU land grab in the Alicante region of Valencia, but also
further north too.
So concerned are other European countries about the
way the LRAU law is being implemented that the ambassadors of 17 European
countries wrote to the prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez
Zapatero, in October 2004 asking him to take action over land grab abuses
in the Valencia Region.
Around 10,000 homeowners have joined together to
campaign against the LRAU land grab under the banner of Abusos Urbanisticos No. Its
President is Charles Svoboda, the former Director General of the
Canadian Security Intelligence Service, who himself is fighting demands for his
villa and land in Benimarco that could cost him €700,000 if he
loses.
A new law - LUV - has been drafted to replace LRAU, but opponents
of LRAU say that it offers little or no extra protection to property owners.
Russell Thomson, the British Consul in Alicante, speaking to the
English language newspaper, Costa Blanca News, in December said of LUV,
"The draft that we have seen is no significant improvement on the LRAU and I am
very disappointed that (the authorities) have not taken the opportunity to
restore honesty to the property market in the Valencia Autonomous
Community."
Abusos Urbanisticos No is asking anyone
affected by LRAU to send details of how they have been affected to Janelly
Fourtou via the Head of the Petitions Committee Secretariat, Mr David Lowe,
Albert Spinelli Bldg., 60 Rue Wiertz, 1047 Brussels, Belgium
(dlowe@europarl.eu.int).
It’s important to note that the vast
majority of homeowners in the Valencian region of Spain are unaffected by the
LRAU Land Grab and will remain so. However, if you are planning to purchase a
property in Valencia or elsewhere in Spain it’s vital that you obtain
independent legal advice before doing so.
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