January 2013

Hello again and a very happy new year to you all. I hope you all enjoyed a very happy and relaxed Christmas.

As usual we will hold SOHA.ES’s annual general meeting this month at the Camping Bar on Wednesday 16th of January at 7.30 pm. The event is only open to members but we will accept new members on the night at the minimal cost of 20€ per household.

One of the key items on the agenda is the strategy for the coming year. We believe strongly that the threat to our homes is as real as ever and if things stay the same as they are some of our homes will be demolished. It is a simple fact that very many of our homes have denuncias against them and although the process of law in Spain is slow eventually the courts will demand their demolition.

What is truly bizarre is that in Viñuela alone there 89 homes which are threatened but only approximately half of these home owners are members of SOHA.ES.

On the 16th of January we will be describing in detail our strategy going forward. At the highest level we believe that ultimately we will not be able to prevent demolitions to local homes without a change in the law and, sad to say, we no longer expect the Junta de Andalucia to do this. Their position is that the licences were issued illegally and that’s that. This means that the only recourse will be to sue the issuer of the licence, namely the Ayuntamiento.

Going forward we will seek to make legal action as low cost as possible for members of SOHA.ES by making the process as replicate-able as we can and by raising money centrally. This is our challenge for 2013.

Of course, if you are in the fortunate position of living in a house without a denuncia then you could just ignore the situation. But I like to think that the vast majority of us are more altruistic than that.