Did they have permission?

We were taken to court by a neighbour and by our Community of Property Owners for an extension that we built sixteen years ago. We lost the case and we were ordered to remove the extension. Our town hall advised us at the time that we could do the work and our lawyers assured us that the building would never be demolished. We have completed the demolition and we have a buyer for the house.

We have lost about €100,000 with building work. We also have four long-standing liens on the property which now amount to a total of about €30,000. Our lawyers say we also have to pay €6,000 for costs of removing the liens from the land registry. From a house sold at €150,000 we will be left with €33,000. Can you advise?

J.S. (Costa Blanca)

You do not say why you lost the court case.  I suspect that it is because you did not obtain the permission of the community before making the extension.  Properly, your town hall should not have issued a building permit without first seeing this permission. This, I fear, will not constitute grounds for an appeal.

Send your questions for David Searl through lawyers Ubeda-Retana and Associates in Fuengirola at Ask@lawtaxspain.com, or call 952 667 090.