MONTE PEGO CONTROVERSY: THE COMPLETE FACTS

meeting for Monte Pego residents with the town council last week was 'a shambles' and 'disappointing', clarifying nothing about the court verdict ordering developers Porsellanes, SL to complete the estate which has been unfinished for decades.

But local authorities' lack of interest in their highest taxpayers is just the tip of the iceberg, say homeowners: they cannot sell their homes, and Pego council is holding onto thousands of euros of their money for reasons of dubious legality.

Yet all Pego council talks about is improving the infrastructure of the urbanisation, say homeowners, who sniggered at the patronising introduction to the presentation showing Monte Pego as a paradise with a sea view which the council says it is committed to making beautiful.

WHAY ARE WE PAYING 'IBI' IF WE DON'T HAVE A 'CÉDULA'?

Potholes in the roads, septic tanks and lack of street lights are annoying and inconvenient, but as residents point out, they've lived with this every day for years, if not decades. What really bothers them is paying some of the highest IBI rates in Pego for nothing in return.

And that their homes do not have 'cédula' to show they have been 'adopted' by the council.

Properties without cédula can be legally sold, but most buyers will be put off - and several say the sales of their homes have fallen through as a result.

Additionally, properties without cédula do not pay IBI - this is a tax payable to the council on buildings it officially recognises as being part of the town in order to fund services and facilities. A property without cédula is, by definition, not officially recognised as being part of the town.

Why, then, residents ask, are they paying IBI if they do not have cédula?

Then there are the 'aval' ac- counts: wads of homeowners' cash sitting in Pego council's coffers to pay for finishing off the urbanisation, taken in case the courts did not oblige the developer to do it.

Developers normally leave a deposit with the council so they can use it for exactly this purpose. But by stealth, and by homeowners wanting to 'do things by the book', the town hall was actually hoping Monte Pego residents would fund the completion of the estate if the original builder didn't. Even though those who bought their homes many years ago in good faith thought they'd already paid for basics like street lights and mains drainage.

WHAT ARE 'AVAL'

ACCOUNTS?

Exactly how many homeowners have paid avales is not clear, but those who have believe it was a form of ' easy money' for the council to finish off the urbanisation at the cost of those who had, technically, already paid for the privilege.

One of those affected, former company secretary and new author Yvonne, says the council has €1,800 of her money and she does not expect to see it again in a hurry.

She and her husband decided to build an extension, and 'wanted to do everything correctly'.

"Stupid or what?" She now wonders.

It meant having to hire an architect to draw up basic specs and plans, and who would then apply for planning permission on her behalf.

"This, of course, costs quite a lot of money before so much as a brick is laid - by that stage, we had already spent about €3,000 on architect's fees and planning," Yvonne reveals.

You'd think that after all that effort and spending money to do things properly and legally, the next thing you'd hear would be that you can go ahead and build your extension in peace.

But instead, there was ' total silence from the council', says Yvonne.

"No planning permission, 'nada'. Eventually, we asked the architect to find out what the hold-up was for, since Pego had previously assured us everything was fine.

"And that's when they hit us with the aval."

In the UK, it would be called an ' escrow account', explains Yvonne.

"Basically, we were told that all major building work on the mountain was subject to a further payment, in addition to planning permission fees, which would be set aside in an escrow account and kept until the court case with Porsellanes was decided.

"Should the judgment go against the council, they would use the money towards completing the urbanisation. If they won, they'd reimburse us.

"If you don't pay your aval, you don't get planning permission and they keep most of the money you paid for that, calling it 'administration charges'!"

The planning fees came to €800 and, in addition, the aval was €1,800 - but to start with, the council wanted about double this amount.

"Their reasoning went like

It's not just about potholes, say Monte Pego residents. The council is sitting on escrow accounts of homeowners' money, and they have no idea when, if ever, they'll get it back...

this: You want a villa extension of 35 square metres. However, given the size of your plot, you could in theory, if you wanted, build an extension of up to 65 square metres.

"So, the aval charged is not based upon the 35 square metres you actually want to build; rather, on the 65 square metres that you could potentially build!

"I've never heard anything so barking mad in all my born days - and our poor architect was going back and forth to the council trying to persuade them to charge us just for the 35 square metres we wanted to build. Which, even then, came to around €1,800. That was five years ago.

"And although the judgment has gone in Pego council's favour, have we heard a word about the refund? We have not."

NOW WHAT?

Monte Pego homeowners had been told for years that if the court verdict fell in favour of Pego council, cédula would be dished out like 'churros' at a fiesta, avales would come raining back into bank accounts, and they would be able to sell their properties legally and easily.

But in practice, this seems unlikely. The council has announced no cédulas will be issued 'until the urbanisation is brought up to an acceptable standard'.

Presumably, then, the council might still need the aval funds it has taken from homeowners if the developer does not, in fact, bring the urbanisation 'up to an acceptable standard'; thus, residents who have paid these may not get them back as promised.

"So, where on earth do we go from here? We sit and wait for 10, 20, 30 years until somebody forces the developer to do something, or the council gives in and does it themselves?" They wonder.

ARMED POLICE ON GUARD

AT RESIDENTS' MEETING

With their heads full of questions, homeowners were keen to get to the bottom of it all and, after the residents' association had spent months pressuring the council to hold a public meeting where they could air their concerns, they were summoned to the municipal theatre on October 1.

The residents' group compiled a list of members' queries to avoid duplication.

But as soon as they were seated, they were told no questions would be permitted.

Immediately, this put their backs up, being expected to show blind obedience like a group of school children in class.

"We did not expect answers to complex questions at the presentation, but we did expect to be able to put our point of view to a human panel," said one of the residents in an official letter of complaint to the town hall.

Despite having been promised English and German translators, the latter was not provided.

After a few minutes, the German residents walked out as they could not understand a word.

The mayor appeared briefly at the beginning, gave an introduction in Spanish which was not translated, and was interrupted by his mobile phone ringing - which he broke off to answer.

A ' lame' PowerPoint presentation, mostly in the wrong order, merely taught residents to suck eggs.

What incensed residents most was an entire row of armed police on duty 'in case of disruption'.

"Pego council may not have noticed, but all of us at the meeting were at least middle-aged, and many were elderly, so we are hardly a gang of football hooligans.

"We found this and the veiled threat in the written ' instructions', that we would be ' removed' from the meeting if we caused 'disturbance', to be deeply insulting," the letter said.

To date, the council has not replied, and residents are not holding their breath.