Lenox

I was reading some tripe in the Spanish press about how the Brits like to buy illegal houses and then dare to be upset when they are torn down..

And then I heard the following conversation:

'Please Mr Salesman Sir, could you sell me an illegal house. No, I don't care about paperwork. My entire savings will be in this home, but I shan't be worried about demolitions. After all, this is Spain - a country I know nothing about. I really hope you can find me something truly illegal as I could maybe save a bit and - even though I could never sell it on afterwards - I do rather fancy having a home with no papers...'
'By the way, I see that your estate agency is apparently a gaily painted car and that you only have a mobile phone number... Good idea!'

Econ

Humm.... Most properties that have had problems will have been bought from companies that actually have an office or a sales cabin on the site, the latter is actually very common with legally built properties in Spain, in many cases it is generally the promoter setting up a temp office as they do not actually have any other or in some cases do but not in that area, this is not to say these are two bit companies, in most cases they aren't and that is generally not where these illegal property sales originated from, they originated from so called established companies.

Generally * in most cases * buying an illigally built property in Spain actually wasn't a big deal until a short time ago, this was actually * a lot * more common than many realise. I know many Spanish and foreigners who built their property and then went to the town hall and told them so they would be fined and then given the papers to make the property legal, it was cheaper to do it this way and pay the fine than actually apply for the proper permits etc. In many cases the owner didn't even bother to go to the town hall and would just wait... yes properties where sold like this without too much of a problem, it was the way things where done. I have bought land here with nothing more than a piece of paper... because that was how it could be done in the campo even up until a few years ago, deeds never existed in some cases and where not worried about by many in others, in my case I pursued things and eventually made the purchase 'legal' and had deeds created... anyway, unfortunately unimaginable greed and raping of coastal and other areas on a * massive * scale has changed things very quickly. Some of the people who are supposed to fix the problem where themselves part of the problem, until that situation is reversed then sadly there are going to be many ugly consequences.

twyntub

For an "illegal" house to be created, quite often many things have to happen - land may be mis-appropriated, documents might be forged, boundary markers might be moved, neighbours and local officials may be bribed, building work will almost certainly go ahead without all or even any of required paperwork, blind eyes will be turned by everyone including architects, town planners and lawyers. The whole project may even be funded by the local bank.

So:

1) At what point does the project actually become 'illegal'?
2) Which of the above people are also comitting a crime?

jdr

Everybody is commiting a crime knowingly or un-knowingly once the land has a price on it, but the sad thing is it`s only the last buyer that ends in the S H with no house and probably a bill for the demolition too.
All the others know how long it takes to wade though Legal paperwork in Spain and can get lost in another mound of it before they can be found and of course the richer you are the harder it is to find you. ;-(