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Tag: Law

Published on Leave a comment on Tax Authorities Detect 30,000 Undeclared Properties and Building Works

The campaign by the Spanish tax authorities to find all newly built structures, alterations or changes of use of properties which have not been declared to the Land Registry is starting to show results.

home 300x200 - Tax Authorities Detect 30,000 Undeclared Properties and Building WorksThe first phase of Hacienda’s plan has covered 486,000 properties in 29 municipalities in Malaga province so far, especially Fuengirola, Benalmádena, Mijas, Vélez, Antequera, Alhaurín de la Torre, Cártama and Alhaurín el Grande.

Inspections have revealed 30,113 buildings (6.2 per cent of the total) which had previously been invisible to the authorities for tax purposes because neither their owners nor the respective town halls had declared them, irrespective of whether or not they had works licences and the necessary certificate of occupancy.
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Published on 3 Comments on Legal resolution changes the situation for off-plan property buyers

An Estepona-based lawyer, Óscar Calvo, has succeeded in obtaining a legal resolution which improves the situation for off-plan property buyers.

Houses in Benalmadena 300x164 - Legal resolution changes the situation for off-plan property buyersThose who bought homes off-plan customarily signed a deal with developers and the bank which guaranteed the refund of any monies paid upfront if the property was not handed over as promised. However this guarantee was invalidated once the primary occupation licence was issued.

Now the situation has changed with the judicial resolution obtained by Calvo which eliminates this invalidation process because it is unlawful. Buyers who signed up to this bank guarantee after 1999 can request a refund.

According to Calvo, he was able to push for the court resolution because the law has been badly interpreted.
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Published on 1 Comment on Andalucía’s Anti-eviction Law Suspended by Court

Spain’s Constitutional Court has suspended - provisionally - the law passed by the Junta de Andalucía in October to prevent families with limited financial resources being evicted from their homes.

46353 1251686 foto 1 300x225 - Andalucía’s Anti-eviction Law Suspended by CourtThe law, described as a measure to ensure the social function of a property, allowed the authority to temporarily expropriate the use of a property repossessed by a bank so that its original owners could still live in it.

The Constitutional Court has admitted the central government appeal against the law designed by the Junta de Andalucía to ease home evictions by temporarily expropriating the use of houses seized by banks and allowing their owners to continue living in them.

The Andalusian law was passed on October 1st and revoked a previous decree on the same matter which had been passed in April and was also the subject of an appeal on grounds of it being unconstitutional.
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Published on 1 Comment on Coast holiday rentals under control

The parliamentary bill to change the rules governing rented accommodation (full name: Ley de Medidas de Flexibilización y Fomento del Mercado de Alquiler de Viviendas) has sparked controversy within the country’s all-important tourism industry.

Flats2 300x225 - Coast holiday rentals under controlThe law will oblige private owners who rent out their properties for short periods of time to meet a series of requirements as well as to comply with the special tourism apartment regulations still to be established by the Junta de Andalucía.

While waiting for the regional authority to draw up this law, and for the central government to define exactly what it considers to be a holiday property, thousands of individual owners have been left wondering what regulations will apply to them.

The potential changes do not just affect a handful of people, but an important sector of the tourism industry. According to the annual financial report produced by La Caixa in 2012, the number of tourists staying in non-official holiday apartments on the Costa del Sol was three times greater than those choosing hotel accommodation. The report states that last year tourists spent 43.1 million nights in properties that are not registered as tourist accommodation, mainly because until now the urban letting law (LAU) has not made this compulsory.
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Published on 1 Comment on Andalusia housing chief calls for national evictions summit

The Andalusian chief of public works and housing, Elena Cortés, on Thursday called on the central government to organize a conference involving all the regions to debate the burning issue of evictions.

She also hoped the conference would give the Andalusian regional government the opportunity to explain in detail the 1016200 2599486 1 300x225 - Andalusia housing chief calls for national evictions summitnew decree on social housing it approved on Tuesday, under which it plans to seize the homes of the needyiest families subject to eviction for up to three years.

Cortés said the central administration has a "golden opportunity" to advance in the same direction by passing the Popular Legislative Initiative on evictions presented in Congress by the Mortgage Victims Platform, which supports dation in payment — canceling a mortgage by handing back the keys to the bank — social housing, changes to mortgage laws and civil lawsuits, and the halting of eviction procedures.

Cortés explained the region's new social housing decree would come into effect on Friday, allowing eligible families to apply for a temporary seizure of their home at one of the housing protection offices it opened in Andalusia's various provincial capitals last October.
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Published on Leave a comment on Popular Party blocks key elements of draft eviction bill

The Popular Party (PP)'s refusal to back a popular initiative for the concept of dation in payment, whereby a homeowner unable to meet mortgage payments can cancel the debt with the bank by handing over the keys, was met with indignation by the Mortgage Victims Platform (PAH).

Flats - Popular Party blocks key elements of draft eviction billOn Tuesday the government presented its amendments to the so-called Popular Legislative Initiative, which reached the lower chamber on a wave of public support that included 1.5 million signatures.

The rest of the parliamentary groups accepted the basic points of the proposal: universal and retroactive dation in payment; a halt to evictions; and the creation of a glut of social housing to support those who have lost their homes.

The PP, though, stated that "not now, nor during the parliamentary process" of amending the proposal will it entertain universal dation in payment. "It is an insult to the people affected," said PAH spokeswoman Ada Colau on Wednesday. "The PP has caved to the bullying of the banks." The government, she added, has destroyed the spirit of the bill by quashing its main objectives.
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Published on Leave a comment on European Court rules Spanish mortgage law is abusive

The European Court of Justice have ruled that Spain’s mortgage law is incompatible with a European directive on abusive practices in consumer contracts, opening the door to more legal protection for households facing eviction from their family home.

mortgage news 300x219 - European Court rules Spanish mortgage law is abusiveThe ruling comes in response to a question posed by a Barcelona court in connection with the eviction of Moroccan immigrant Mohammed Aziz from his home in January 2011, after he failed to meet mortgage payments on a 138,000-euro loan granted to him by savings bank CatalunyaCaixa in July 2007.

The ruling will apply to all eviction cases now being processed across Europe but might not be applied retroactively, as pressure groups have been calling for. Amendments to the mortgage law, which is more than a century old, are now going through parliament, and it appeared as if the government was waiting for the Luxembourg-based court’s judgment before proceeding with the passage of the draft law.
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Published on Leave a comment on Rental Market Flexibility Law: Debtors’ Register

Via an amendment to the Rental Market Flexibility Law, the Public Works Ministry plans to set up a register of people who have been sentenced for breaching their obligation to pay rent. The idea behind the proposal is to increase the number of homes on the rental market by reassuring owners who might wish to let their properties but fear the possibility of an encounter with tenants who are conflictive or do not pay their dues.

Rental Register - Rental Market Flexibility Law: Debtors' RegisterThe government has suggested that the data on the register would be cleared after six years and that homeowners would only be able to consult the list when they are in the act of drawing up a rental contract.

A debtors’ register is a risky idea, one that sounds simple enough to set up but which in fact is hard to operate with accuracy. First off, there could be difficulties as regards the Data Protection Law unless the appropriate safeguards are introduced to make sure the information remains private and is not published elsewhere.

But the biggest threat in practical terms is that errors on the register are not corrected swiftly so that blameless individuals suffer the effects of doubts over their reputation when they attempt to rent an apartment or apply for a bank loan.
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Published on Leave a comment on Green light to Coast Law reform to save seaside homes

The Cabinet on Friday approved a reform of the Coast Law extending an amnesty for the owners of beachfront properties that would otherwise have to be demolished.

Owners of properties that were in breach of the current legislation, many of them foreigners, were given a 30-year concession of use that was due to expire in 2018.

IMG 1478 300x225 - Green light to Coast Law reform to save seaside homesThe overhaul of the current law, which has been in place since 1988, also creates a special regime for 11 areas, which will be taken out of the public domain. It also established four-year concessions for beach bars and restaurants.

The surface easement limits, or protection areas, for rivers could be reduced from 100 meters to 20 meters.

The text of the draft reform said the current legislation “has tolerated outcomes that are not acceptable in environmental terms,” adding that “time has consolidated certain situations,” and that the law has “prompted mistrust and uncertainty.”

“The aim of the reform is to avoid the risk of homeowners losing their property rights in the short term, and particularly bearing in mind the difficulties this could create for foreigners,” the text also says.
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