Spanish Demolition!!
Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...
Posted on 01/18/2008 10:21:00 PM PST by SubGeniusX
Hundreds of Britons fear that they could lose their homes on the Costas in what they claim is an "out-and-out persecution" of the expatriate community.
Residents' groups are planning demonstrations outside their town halls over the coming weeks to demand that the homes they bought in good faith are declared safe against an offensive by Spanish authorities to demolish property built illegally.
Among those affected are John and Christine Bull, who sold their family home in Goring-on-Sea, in West Sussex, four years ago to start their retirement on the Costa Almeria in southern Spain.
But they believe their home, a modest three-bedroom bungalow in landscaped gardens three miles inland from the Mediterranean, is next in line for the wrecker's ball.
"I doubt very much that we will be here next year," said Mr Bull, 66, as he surveyed the property that has cost them £200,000 just outside the town of Vera.
Last week they watched as a demolition crew tore down the home of their neighbours, Len and Helen Prior, after the regional government of Andalusia revoked the building licence issued by the town hall.
"When they did that the authorities were sending a message and we got it loud and clear," said Mr Bull, who says his house is next on the demolition list.
"We are consulting lawyers and have spoken to the mayor but there seems to be nothing we can do to stop the order. They think that because we are foreigners our rights can be ignored. But we intend to make a lot of noise about it."
Next weekend the Bulls will be among thousands expected to demonstrate outside the local town hall calling for justice.
"Just like the Priors we did everything possible to get permission to built our home and we were assured that our house was legal," said Mrs Bull. "We weren't duped into anything and there is no suggestion of corruption. But it seems we are caught in a battle between the local council and the regional government."
But the problems are not confined to Vera and the issue has sent shockwaves across the expatriate community of Spain, where as many as a million Britons are thought to own property. Along the coast from Vera is Mojacar, which has an expatriate population of 50 per cent.
"It is out-and-out persecution of the expat community," said Lenox Napier, 55, a 40-year resident of Mojacar and the secretary of the Ciudadanos Europeos Party, which will lead the demonstrations next week.
"No one wants to say that without foreign investment in this area the Spanish would still be growing tomatoes and riding around on donkeys but it is true. They think expats like the Priors are an easy target but they haven't thought of the message they are sending out.
"There is already a slump in real estate in the region and thousands of newly built homes are standing empty and this latest news has served as a nail in the coffin. Who will want to buy in Spain now?" But a spokesman from the Spanish Embassy in London urged the Priors' case to be taken in context.
"There has been one case of a British expat to have their home knocked down. It's an isolated case out of tens of thousands of British people who continue to enjoy living in Spain and should be taken as such," said the spokesman.
Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...
The Brits should know better than to invest in Spain. Same as foolish Americans who invest in Mexico only to have their homes stolen by Mexican authorities.
(It's probably going to go Islamic again, anyway.)
Used to be, I'd say I was glad I lived in America where that kind of thing couldn't happen--nowadays I'm not so sure.
We have regional government around here it doesn't seem to be accountable to anyone.
I’ve been watching this Spanish coastal episode for five years. There are hundreds of villages along the Spanish coast...where some real estate guy offered up cash to members of the town council, and got permission to build massive condo buildings along a state or local park area...which every single law in place should have stopped. Town hall meetings in the beginning....did nothing to halt construction....and the politicians that replaced the town council...got the same bribes.
Its only been in the last year that federal authorities got involved and started arrested folks who took bribes....and then started tearing down the homes. As the federal authorities said...the “so-called” owners can go back to the real estate folks and sue them...although the cash is all gone and dispersed out for bribes. I’m guessing if you are lucky...you will get 20 cents on the dollar of what you might have been owed.
Reason TV w/ Drew Carey:
National City: Eminent Domain Gone Wild
Reason.tv host Drew Carey visits National City, California, where the local government is taking eminent domain abuse to new lows.
Eminent domain is the constitutionally sanctioned practice of taking land for legitimate public uses. Traditionally, that's meant things like roads and schools. Over the past several decades, however, governments have gone hog wild with eminent domain, routinely condemning property and turning it over to well-connected private developers as a way of subsidizing economic development and increasing tax revenues (never mind that it doesn't always work out that way).
Officials in National City, a predominantly Hispanic community near San Diego, have pushed to bulldoze a popular athletic center for struggling kids to pave the way for private developers to build new luxury condos.
As tragic and absurd as this may sound, such outrageous affronts to property rights are an almost daily occurrence. Episode 3 of The Drew Carey Project chronicles the devastating impact of eminent domain abuse on the lives of people whose property the government can threaten to take, not for public use, but for the benefit of wealthy developers.
REDEVELOPMENT: A Tale of Two Cities
Reason.tv host Drew Carey revisits the problem of eminent domain abuse following up on his earlier video, National City: Eminent Domain Gone Wild.
The City of Los Angeles used eminent domain to take a popular Hollywood bar and numerous other small businesses so that the city could hand the land over to private developers planning to build a W hotel and million-dollar condos. Fortunately, there's a better way to revitalize neighborhoods. In contrast to Hollywood, Mayor Curt Pringle of nearby Anaheim has found a way to encourage redevelopment by working cooperatively with property owners, without using the power of eminent domain.
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It happens every day in this country ...
Its only been in the last year that federal authorities got involved and started arrested folks who took bribes....and then started tearing down the homes. As the federal authorities said...the “so-called” owners can go back to the real estate folks and sue them...although the cash is all gone and dispersed out for bribes. I’m guessing if you are lucky...you will get 20 cents on the dollar of what you might have been owed.
Exactly! I live here and I couldn't have said it better than you did.
Funniest post in a long time......
I’ve been watching this Spanish coastal episode for five years. There are hundreds of villages along the Spanish coast...where some real estate guy offered up cash to members of the town council, and got permission to build massive condo buildings along a state or local park area...which every single law in place should have stopped. Town hall meetings in the beginning....did nothing to halt construction....and the politicians that replaced the town council...got the same bribes.
Don’t ever assume this just happens in foreign countries. I grew up in a beautiful surburb on Oahu. The past 5+ years, developers greasing the palms of local government built condo monstrosities on any piece of land they could get their hands on. And if they couldn’t get their plans approved, they would build them anyway. As long as they greased the right political palms, they got away with it.
Residents of Spain are called “Spaniards”; the term spanish refers to their inhabitants of their colonies, what we normally refer to as “Illegal immigrants”.
The Coast of Spain was a mecca for the Brits for many years; but within the past 10 yrs or so, arabs have been buying all the real estate, pushing the europeans out of the area.
Spaniards now say that Spain starts in Madrid and Europe starts in Barcelona. South of Madrid and South-west of Barcelona is an extension of North Africa.
“We have regional government around here it doesn’t seem to be accountable to anyone.”
I would have thought Measure 37 took care of bureaucrats messing with people’s property in Oregon. If you’re having trouble, you might want to speak the people here:
Invest money where there is no rule of law ? No thanks.
Back in the Thatcher days, her economic boom led to people buying second homes in Wales, The displaced Welsh weren’t too happy at seeing their housing costs go up, and there was a spate of fires in said structures.
Who the hell would buy a “luxury condo” in Nasty City?
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