British house buyers hit by lack of municipal planning
Couple stymied by Franco era military defence law which affects 'foreigners'
A BRITISH couple have been unable to buy a house in an urbanisation in San Miguel de Salinas because the land has not been classified by the town hall as urban, so it is still subject to an old law which requires non-EU buyers to obtain military authorisation.
According to the San Miguel Arcángel residents’ association, an appeal lodged by a Torrevieja notary was turned down, and the registration of the building and sales contract have been suspended.
The property lies within a wide-reaching zone around Cartagena classified as being of interest for national defence.
This area not only affects part of the Murcia region but also the south of the Vega Baja in Alicante province.
The law on areas of interest for national defence, passed in 1975, requires foreigners – now understood as non-EU citizens – to obtain permission from the ministry for defence in order to buy property in them.
Since Brexit, British buyers are no longer EU citizens and many prospective buyers suddenly found themselves affected by this law, and subject to being refused permission or at least lengthy delays.
In 2021, the ministry for defence relaxed the restrictions so that military authorisation was no longer required as long as the land in question had been officially classified by the local authority as urban.
Although the house is not new, it is part of an urbanisation dating from 1998 that was constructed without an urban development plan, under subsidiary planning rules that are still valid in the municipality.
As such, the home is still subject to this old law, so notaries and property registrars must therefore demand the required military authorisation.
According to the Arcángel association, this British couple’s hopes have been shattered ‘as a result of the town hall’s apathy and lack of control over town planning activity’.
They assure that this is just another example of how this lack of control is proving costly to residents of the municipality.
In the last year, the town hall has been ordered by the Regional Supreme Court (TSJCV) to pay out more than €1 million in town planning related cases.
This month a judgment was revealed that ordered the local authority to pay €248,000 plus legal interest for expropriating private
property in the 1980s without following the correct procedure.
The plaintiffs were demanding compensation for 235 square metres and 556m2 of land that were taken from them to build Calles Quevado and Padre Jesús.
This was in addition to a ruling from March 2021, in which the town hall was ordered to pay €436,839 plus legal interest to a landowner for an expropriation to build a school that was never constructed.