pete_l

There's a TV programme on tonight about the experiences of brits in
Albox who didn't do enough checking and have bought illegal houses
and ...... well you can guess the rest.

Here's the link to the BBCs website trailer for the programme.

BBC1 Wed, 31 Jan 19:30 GMT

Pete

mrsjdr

More "doom and gloom" TV for Spain, but guess we will all watch it!

mikelincs

Please see thread posted last week about this programme.
BBC TV Real Story, apparently a repeated programme according to that thread.

mitzipurr

We did not see this programme so will watch it tonight....

We looked at houses in the Albox area last year and were shown some really nice houses. However when we enquired further as to why there was no electric we were informed by the agent that this was no problem as he himself was very friendly with the Mayor and was more like his assistant!! After hearing this information we quickly caught the train back - this was most definitely not the area for us!!

Mitzyboy

Well just watched it and there were some very sad stories there, especially the couple who did everything right but still got screwed by the Valencian Land Grab. And the place in Benissa .... I know that road, and the poor sod lost his whole villa there

Just enforces the advice, independent solicitor. And I'd think twice about buying something in the middle of orange groves where development might be around the corner

mitzipurr

I also just watched it. I think the remark of they are 50,000 illegal builds in Spain is a very very conservative estimate. According to some reports Chiclana has nearly 20000 add this to the Marbella total and you have over 50,000 in only 2 towns!!. It was also interesting remarks made by the mayor of Albox ie "why shouldnt we make our living off tourism" and then blaming developers for all the illegal building.

I am disgusted that despite numerous programmes and bad publicity the Spanish goverment does nothing to stop this deplorable state of affairs. However as long as we have programmes about living in Spain with Amanda and co with remarks like "you can get 500 euros a month rent for eight months, the house has no electric but it is a simple matter to connect, the house has no escritura but that is not a problem, you can get get planning permission from the mayor etc etc" things are unlikly to change.

jdr

There are over 100,000 in Anderlucia alone.
And people still buying and saying "that couldn`t happen to us, we have the paperwork"
But its no good if the paperwork is bent.
Apparently the licence is given by default, if the council conveniently dont turn up to check the property...... what.
Interesting reading HERE.

big wheels

I would think that a rough guide to whether your house is at great risk of being knocked down would be to contact the company advertising insurance against demolition in the weekly English rags.
If they are willing to insure you. There is a good chance that your house is safe.

jdr

Thats a good thought, but they will stick in a few loss leaders ;-)

mikelincs

Certainly makes us glad we bought a resale, and on an urbanisation where ther are Spanish families both living and owning as holiday lets.

big wheels

If anyone wishes to watch the "real story" report , it's here.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/video_and_audio/default.stm

Beachcomber

The link doesn't seem to work. Try this one:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsa/n5ctrl/pr...o/31jan_nb.asx

big wheels

[QUOTE=Beachcomber;4362481]The link doesn't seem to work.
It does if you copy and paste it into your browser

"live" links tend to use up bandwith on these forums as people clicking on them may spend a good while reading, or watching while still connected to this site.
Probably not a great problem, but it keeps things tidy and costs down