Tortosa Area Forum
Help or Advice >> Building, reforming, legalities etc >> DODGY ESTATE AGENTS ,MAYORS AND ILLEGAL PROPERTIES
http://www.tortosaforum.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1302034833

Message started by gyronut44 on Apr 5th, 2011 at 10:20pm

Title: Re: DODGY ESTATE AGENTS ,MAYORS AND ILLEGAL PROPERTIES
Post by cherryfarms on Apr 28th, 2011 at 11:04pm
This is the latest information that i have found . :)
            makes some interesting reading
             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

a little update about the dreaded Cedula situation. A brief meeting took place in El Perelló recently where the British Consul from Barcelona explained the current state of affairs. A couple of points first though:

1.       Origins. There is speculation that this whole mess has come about because the Spanish government have received money from the EU to be used to provide services like electricity and mains water to all legal dwellings. Having misused this funding, they have brought in the requirement for a cedula so that previously legal homes are no longer regarded as such and therefore are not entitled to the services mentioned. This obviously applies mainly to properties that are not on urbanisations. This is not being admitted by anyone in authority, but does make some sense.

2.       It must be emphasized that property issues such as this do not fall within the remit of Embassy or Consular staffs. However, with so many from the community adversely affected, both the British Embassy in Madrid and our own Consul in Barcelona have stepped in to make the Spanish government aware – in no uncertain terms – of the worries that this situation has brought to the expat community (obviously not just the British). So where are we now?

The Embassy and Consul are seriously concerned about the situation. The Embassy has had talks at the very highest levels with the Spanish Government, expressed grave concerns about this issue and received assurances that something will be done to resolve it. Following that, the Consul has had meetings with the Catalunyan Government to discuss what steps can be taken.

Initially at least, the Consulate are concentrating their efforts in seeing that changes are made to the law so that people who bought properties completely legally, using lawyers and following all of the correct procedures, but who now find that they can’t obtain a cedula, can receive one. This is not going to happen overnight. I think that we all know how long it takes politicians to get moving to correct injustice, not just here in Spain but globally. The Consul feels that it could take a year or longer before any change to the law occurs. They will keep up the pressure in any way that they can, including cooperating with the Consular staffs of other nations similarly affected.



A final point is that the Madrid Embassy is taking this so seriously, that it has actually taken on a new full-time member of staff whose remit is to keep up to date on property issues and also to act as liaison with members of the European Parliament who are also applying pressure on the Spanish Government to get this confusing mess sorted out.

Tortosa Area Forum » Powered by YaBB 2.6.0!
YaBB Forum Software © 2000-2024. All Rights Reserved.