“The Orihuela Councillor for Land Issues, Mr Antonio Zapata, was last Thursday the 25th of November granting to TV Orihuela and to the Local Newspaper “La Verdad” an interview. Besides other issues, he has announced that a regularization process that would be using a legal development tool for environmental impact reduction is going to be tested, for the first time, with 19 neighbours of an illegal houses compound placed in the Orihuela country area of Mudamiento.
The Lawyers, María Dolores Hernández and Connie Raymundo, were lodging a petition signed by almost all the homeowners clearly proving their determination to be submitted to this regularization process and promising to meet all the costs related to the mentioned regularisation. The authorities have decided to attend it. Lots of legal documentation was also lodge with the petition in order to help the authorities’ duty.
According to the Councillor, the costs of the mentioned process will depend on the houses compound infrastructures so could be from 4 to 8 thousand euro per house.
The Councillor Mr Zapata stated that he will be to the Valencia Conseller (Minister) Mrs Isabel Bonig entire disposition in order to offer his Town as an experiment or first experience for this type of illegal homes regularizations as they have been studying this legal possibility for a long while.
In the same interview, the Councillor has informed the reporters that many sky photographs of their Town were taken and because the large number of illegal houses they have discovered, their Town Hall may have lost between 2 and 6 million euro income from building licences and fines for these illegal houses.
Furthermore, the Councillor was pointing out that a new Town Hall office will be opened in order to attend all the applications from those willing to achieve the regularisation process for their homes.
In case this legal solution eventually works then, it will open many doors for the regularisation of lots of houses in the same situation in other many Towns as Catral where the authorities and their legal advisers have been also hardly working in a similar regularisation solution but obviously, taking in account their specific situation and legal complexity of the particular situation.
You can find the articles in Spanish in TV Orihuela (http://www.teleorihuela.com/2012/11/22/urbanismo-cifra-en-al-menos-dos-millones-de-euros-el-quebranto-a-las-arcas-de-orihuela-por-las-primeras-208-viviendas-ilegales-detectadas-en-el-norte-de-orihuela/) and Periódico La Verdad (http://www.laverdad.es/alicante/v/20121123/orihuela/consistorio-pierde-seis-millones-20121123.html) or to contact in English Connie Raymundo (info@rhv-lawfirm.com – www.rhv-lawfirm.com ) and María Dolores Hernández (mhernandez@nhabogados.com – www.nhabogados.com ) for further information.