It's no secret that last week there was an event in Valencia that we hoped we would never see, and no I am not talking about the America's Cup, that was an event we thought we would never see!
The ex mayor of Montroy was arrested and detained overnight for allowing illegal builds in his town during the years of his mandate. The story got some real leverage because of the scale of the issue and those involved. There are roughly 70 villas known to be affected by this particular deal although there may be more.
The issue is that the Mayor gave building licences on land not earmarked for development and also not beloging to the company that was selling the off plan villas there. The company involved was called Zodiac Villas. They promoted the villas through a website set up especially for the purpose and they also marketed directly to UK based buyers. All of the directors and those involved in Zodiac Villas have also been arrested. They were heavily involved with the builder.
There are now people living there that are neither owners of the houses in reality, nor do they have basic services. Not to mention that the villas are nothing like what they thought they were getting when they signed up, the lovely mock up pictures on the brochures with the potential sports facilities and other things like parks and even a golf course are noticeable only by their absence. The people interviewed in the press last week were totally unaware of what is going to happen now although the new Mayor of Montroy is suggesting that a PAI is being put in place to legalise all of the properties.
Why did this situation arise? Simple, greed! The developer could buy land cheap if it was non urban. He could then "encourage" the town hall to declare the land as urban, at a stroke multiplying the value. The Mayor ran an electrical company which got the contracts for all of the electrical installations of the houses in question (And that is not conjecture it is a fact). Everyone makes a tidy amount and the buyers are happy because they have a "bargain"
The problem occurs when the properties are not declared, there is no approved by regional government even though the ex Mayor is of the same party and the land is not re-zoned. It doesn't help that the real culprit here, the guy paying out the sweeteners, a German builder called Klaus, has now shuffled off this mortal coil and cannot be questioned.
What happens now? A long and stressful wait for the owners of the properties. They need to hope that the houses are legalised so that they can pass them on by selling or inheritance. The local council has promised there will be no demolition. We will see. And we will also see what happens to all of the implicated parties in this rather corrupt practice (Whoops I used the C word).
Of course the ex-Mayor denies all responsibility with family members claiming that he could never ever have signed anything illegal (Ho ho ho). It was an open secret for four years before the Civil Guard arrested him this week that anything was possible in Montroy as long as the right palms were greased. I am happy to say that we got legal advice on the status of the houses in Montroy when we were offered them some years ago and decided against any sort of promotion due to the "issues" and the strange smell. We had also been involved in people buying without bank guarantees on new builds and with another Mayor's say so and it is painful, even though we recommended usng a lawyer in that case too, so we didn't want a repeat dose. Our clients were saved the issues by a little bit of due diligence. We have always said to clients to get legal advice but many ignore us and buy elsewhere and issues can come up, they don't always but they can.
Our advice is always, has always been and will continue to be to use a lawyer. If you do and something comes up later the lawyer's insurance should cover any indemnity but in the end it is the indivu¡idual who makes the shout about whether to go ahead with a purchase so remember "caveat emptor" and act based on the best available information. If you are not using a lawyer you do not have that best information. If you are you must know that the lawyer can be trusted and that can only be done by prior recommendation.
WhatsApp us
