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Wednesday, 04 February 2009 |
Brits fall foul of Coast Law
By Nuria Pérez
HEATHER Taylor and her husband had always dreamed of owning a property by the seaside in Spain.
It would be their retirement home after years of hard work in Belfast.
Last October they bought an old house in Los Nietos near Cartagena.
The house was facing the beach and it had spectacular views across the Mar Menor.
They purchased through a local estate agent and a solicitor in Torrevieja to make sure the whole process was legal.
“At the time we were very excited and had plans to extend and modernise the house beautifully,” Mrs Taylor said.
They asked an architect to look at the house and to draw up the plans for them.
However his report was a bolt from the blue.
“He said the property was in the public domain and that we could not do any building work and that it could be knocked down,” Mrs Taylor added. “We knew nothing about the Coast Law (Ley de Costas) until we got the architect.”
Ms Taylor wonders why the estate agent or the solicitor, or the notary did not inform them.
According to the department for coast in Murcia the property was already affected by the Coastal Law – which bans building within 20 metres of the high-tide mark in municipal areas – when it was sold.
“The previous owner must have known it and the lawyer of the new owners would have known it if she had asked,” a spokesman for the department said.
Originally only part of the property was affected by the demarcation lines but the situation has changed.
The department for coast stated this week that the whole property was now affected although they are now considering different options.
One of the choices would be offering a 30-year occupation licence (concesión) to the Taylors.
“Homeowners have to apply for to the department for coast for the licence,” a spokesman said.
“It is not issued automatically and we have to study each case carefully.”
Another ray of light has appeared for Mrs and Mr Taylor and for all homeowners affected by the Coast Law whose properties were built before 1988.
The ministry for environment has modified some details of the law and homeowners are allowed to sell or to pass on their properties.
“The purchasers and the heirs must take into account that they will not own a property,” a spokesman of the ministry explained.
“What they will actually own is the ‘concesión’ from the ministry to live in the property for a fixed number of years and then it will be over.”
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