# Italy - Spanish problems?



## kerrys (Mar 15, 2010)

Hi! 

My name is Kerry and my mum and I are currently living in Spain trying to find out what it is like to live in Italy. We are British citizens but have a passion for travelling and settling in one place as a family along with my father. 

Where we are living at the moment, is currently under the age old problem here and that is the construction, past or present, that has been made illegal without any warning. 

We are living in an urbanisation where problems are now occuring. We have been living here since 2005 and thought that we had all of our papers legal. We brought through the notary and were registered as the legal property owners. We did, however, now we have found out that since 15/03/2010, we are illegaly living here as the Junta de Andalucia have cancelled our license saying that there is construction on this land. 

When the promotors, asked for a license for the building work that they wanted to do. They managed to get permission and built on what was: 

Green zone land. 
It had been swapped somehow with construction land. 
It expanded roughly double of what they inicially were allowed. 

We have been told that the town hall are in the process of making up the new plans to fit in with the urbanisation as it stands and we now have a lawyer who has taken on the case and will be sorting out the plans and also any court case that is thrown at us in regards to demolision of the houses until we have the plans approved. 

We are now sitting tight, waiting for all of this to come through and then we can proceed to selling the house. 

My question is, does this kind of thing happen in Italy? This is a very common occurance here and, as I have always wanted to live in Italy, I do not want the dream ruined when I get there due to something like this happening again. 

Thanks for you time in reading this and I wold be grateful for any information that you can provide. 

Kerry


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## NickZ (Jun 26, 2009)

If you're asking if people illegal build then the answer is yes.

OTOH usually it's people building for themselves. Or at the very least the buyers know they are buying illegal builds. Nothing stops a buyer from going to the town hall and asking about legality of new builds.

On the third hand Italy is full of old houses so it's not like you need to buy new build.


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## kerrys (Mar 15, 2010)

People illegally build but that would be due to the fact that they want to build the house themselves, see the land and just build? That's how I have understood it. Sorry if this is not the case. 

The case here, is that they supposed have had the license but due to land being private etc it has been revoked due to this major hiccup. It happens all over, licenses are being signed off and then revoked. This is when demolision comes into play and there has been a lot. 

We prefer an old house but we want to know if this would happen there? Also, would the lawyer be able to get hold of the information to tell us whether or not something like this would happen? But you say that we can do this ourselves?


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## NickZ (Jun 26, 2009)

kerrys said:


> People illegally build but that would be due to the fact that they want to build the house themselves, see the land and just build? That's how I have understood it. Sorry if this is not the case.
> 
> We prefer an old house but we want to know if this would happen there? Also, would the lawyer be able to get hold of the information to tell us whether or not something like this would happen? But you say that we can do this ourselves?


No I meant some people will buy farm land or other non residental land and just build. Ignoring the zoning.

The notaio (UK solictor) should be able to check any legal issues.


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## kerrys (Mar 15, 2010)

They do generally do the checks don't they? I would have to be on top of them I am assuming or are they quite good with these things? 

Thank you for your help Nick, just another thing. Where would reccommend to visit as people who are first time buyers in the country looking to settle?


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## NickZ (Jun 26, 2009)

Legally the Notaio is supposed to check. They are human but it is there responsibilty.

Where? Depends on what you want. If you can handle 100% Italian . Budge. Weather. 

It's a big country and you can find almost anything.


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

The problem in Spain is usually down to collusion between developers and the Town Hall who create an illegal set of papers to appear to be producing a perfectly legal housing estate. The builder (not always though) and the buyer of the property end up in the middle of this property scam. 

In theory the developer and the dishonest local official(s) share the dishonest proceeds, however it is not unheard of for the developer to take the lion's share if not all the profit and scarper either back to where he/she came from and leave the local official to face the music. In the past the more superior authority (in this case, the Junta) has not taken too much notice, however party politics being what it is, if the JUnta is a different colour from the dishonest Ayuntamiento, the Junta may well crack down and this is what you are being faced with. 

It will probably come as no surprise to find out that the developers were of the same ilk as the old time-share touts and often are of the same nationality as the people who are being fleeced so you trusted them more than you would a local - HUGE mistake. The local will still be here long after your own "trustworthy" national has upped sticks and gone.


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