Demands to change the Law grow to the detriment of the decree

(best efforts translation) of article from La Voz. From our friends in AUAN.

Town Halls, lawyers and those affected demand a change in the LOUA and claim that the document does not help houses involved in legal proceedings

A year and a half after its approval, the optimism with which the Junta’s decree to regularize houses is down by leaps and bounds and earns detractors among the town halls, lawyers and those affected by urban planning problems.

The various parties involved do not hide their disappointment with this tool that they believe to be insufficient; above all to save houses that are currently involved in judicial proceedings and which can be found in their hundreds in the province of Almeria.

Reactions

Some have not been surprised by the recent sentence of the High Court in Seville which stated that the decree “does not legalize buildings that emerged contrary to the planning regulations”, rather it “is no more that the legislative expression of the desire to facilitate a legal instrument for administrations with jurisdiction to bring order to irregular situations”. Amongst the town halls that contain a large number of houses of this type you find ALbox (PSOE). This is also one of the consistories that have worked quickly with the Junta to prepare the paperwork which permits the commencement of regularisation using the Andalucía Decree.

Despite this, the Planning councillor in the town, Sonia Cerdan, recognises the difficulties faces by “houses in the courts and on urban parcelaciones” and points to a “modification” of the Planning Laws of Andalucía (LOUA) as a possible solution. Still, she also points out that “it has resolved the situation of many more houses that we expected and that we inherited from the previous council”. Another town hall that had also welcomed the decree with hope is Cantoria (PP). Now it’s Mayor, Pedro Llamas, has a “less than positive” evaluation as to how it has advanced the regularization of houses with the legal text in hand. Among other things, it is because they have “problems” which the law cannot resolve. “Those that have problems have those that are difficult to resolve, such as the issue of parcelaciones”, he says.

For Llamas, the remedy requires “tweaking” the legal text and “facilitating” actions designed “to contribute to the reactivation of the sector”. Otherwise, he predicts, the decree will remain “watered down”. The analysis of one of the lawyers specialising in this subject, Alfredo Najas, does not differ from the previous ones. The lawyer is adamant that “The decree does not resolve anything with regard to legal cases, which is the problem here in Almeria”, claims Najas, who also calls for a change in the LOUA. In addition, he questions the usefulness of a decree which solves the situation of those who have no legal problems. “It is like a vaccine for healthy people, but the sick – houses with legal problems or demolition orders –cannot resort to the decree” he summarises with a simple and clear example.