I heard through the grapevine that the Spanish family only ever had permission to build an almacen, and that the case was dragged in and out of court for over 3 years, finally having the house demolished.

Surely this should be a warning to anyone thinking of buying a rustic finca in Catalunya now, and no, it's not because I have an estate agency based in Aragon, before anyone jumps in!

Only last week, a man who came out with me to look at property in Aragon 2 years ago called to ask if I could help him because he was in so much trouble.

After me explaining all the problems about building in Catalunya, he bought a finca of 1.5 hectares behind the hospital in Mora d'Ebre for 100k with a part built almacen of approx 200 m2.

A Dutch couple operating illegally as an estate agent/casa rural and building company sold it to him, and said that he could finish the house for another 50k.
   
He paid only 50k on the escritura, the rest in cash, and the building money in cash, because he was told 'this is how we do it in Spain'.

The house isn't finished, the 'builder' wants more to finish it, the buyer has 5000k worth of furniture here in storage because he was told the house would be finished by last Christmas.

My Architect went to Mora d'Ebre town hall with this poor man last week, to ask permission to finish renovating the almacen, because the Dutch guy didn't even do that.

They said that no more permissions will be given out, and all the surrounding chalets/villas/houses on neighbouring properties had the permissions in place before the end of 2008, which seems to be the last time you could build there (I dont know for sure, because we dont touch rustic properties in Catalunya for this reason)

The sad ending to this story is that the man has returned to the UK having lost his life's savings, and not knowing what the next chapter of his life will be, but apparently he is taking them to court for compensation.

He asked if I could sell the land, and at least get something for it, because it has mains water, but other than it being a vegetable garden, what is anyone going to pay for it.

If you frequent the car boot sales you will probably have been approached by this couple offering to sell/buy your property.

How many more people have to go through this heartbreak because of people operating illegally and causing so much misery............that's where the problem lies, they have to tell LIES to sell their properties.

I dont know how these people sleep at night, and if anyone wants their names send me a PM and I will gladly give it to you.

Jools