Home owners win compensation battle in Senate

CAMPAIGNS fighting for more protection for home buyers expressed their joy as the Spanish senate unanimously agreed a new law which guarantees compensation prior to demolition. The law will protect owners if planning permission for their homes were to be revoked.
Around 100 people from organisations based in Almeria, Axarquia, Valencia and Cantabria travelled to Madrid to lobby senators before a vote was taken. Representatives of the groups composed of Maura Hillen and Gerardo Vazquez from AUAN (Almeria), Phil Smalley, Kath Williams and Fernando Montero from SOHA (Axarquia) and Ciriaco García, José Manuel Olaiz and Antonio Vilela from AMA (Cantabria), met with the parliamentary groups accompanied by Helen and Len Prior, the British couple whose house in Vera, Almeria, was demolished in 2008 without prior compensation.

A spokesperson for the groups said:
“When this initiative becomes law, the houses of innocent families cannot be demolished without prior compensation when planning permission is revoked, as happened to the Priors for whom this change, sadly, comes too late.

“This change is a very important step to bring justice to thousands of families and the associations express their grateful thanks to the Senate for this great expression of democracy in action.”

This new amendment is in addition to the one that took place in March of this year when, via the same procedure, the Senate approved another initiative of the associations to modify the Criminal Code to ensure prior compensation to purchasers in good faith whose properties were at risk via the criminal courts.

Read our previous coverage of the Priors’ story here.