malaga | C&D Solicitors

PROPERTIES ON NON-DEVELOPABLE LAND AFFECTED BY RECENT FIRE IN COSTA DEL SOL

Geschrieben von admin am 6 September, 2012. Veröffentlicht in english speaking solicitor, Featured, lawyer, malaga. Keine Kommentare zu PROPERTIES ON NON-DEVELOPABLE LAND AFFECTED BY RECENT FIRE IN COSTA DEL SOL

As a result of the terrible fire initiated last Thursday 30th in Coin, an estimate of 100 to 200 properties built on non-developable land within the municipal area of Coín, Mijas, Marbella, Ojén and Alhaurín el Grande were severely damaged and some of them completely ruined.

In this year 2012 the Decree 2/2012 for the regulation of buildings and scattered rural settlements on non-developable land in Andalusia was passed by the Andalusian Regional Government in January to put a stop to the problem of thousand of properties on non-developable land. However, this Decree does not currently apply nor does it mean the legalization of these properties, as it was already discussed on once of our previous article

According to the above mentioned Decree, most of these fire-affected properties are considered assimilated to out of ordination housing, as they were built without construction permits or infringing their condition and the municipal General Plan for Urban Planning PGOU. Therefore, no measures can be adopted to recover their legality, which has been disrupted over time and they cannot either be legalized. The only permission authorized by this Decree is “…works for the repair and maintenance which may require the strict maintenance of the security, occupation and health standards of the property” (Article 8.3 of the Decree).

In the event of some fire-affected properties considered out of ordination—properties built in accordance with the municipal PGOU, but considered “out of its ordination” after the PGOU modification, the permitted construction works shall be provided by the municipal PGOU, which is currently under development in most of the municipalities. The Andalusian Town Planning Act L.O.U.A. shall be also considered as it provides that “…only repair works for the strict maintenance of property occupation or usage…” as well as “…exceptionally partial and circumstantial works may be permitted for the property consolidation…”. It is worth mentioning that only a few of these properties may be under the “out of ordination” condition.

This restriction or limitation to alter or renovate properties on non-developable land is provided by the definition on the Decree for “scattered rural properties”, which are included within the “out or ordination” concept and its variant “assimilated”. In accordance with the case law, this concept has been defined as “constructions to disappear once their useful life possibilities finishes—the “out of ordination” condition aims the usage of property until it finishes over time, ends up as a ruin and naturally disappears. For this reason, the Andalusian regulation always provides the granting of permits for this type of constructions for the strict maintenance and under exceptional circumstances.

The Decree does not provide the legalization of these properties. In fact, part of the status for these “assimilated to out of ordination” properties considered as illegal, makes them to be given a definition and their use limited, since no measures can be taken to protect their legality, so that they are “attacked”, as too much time has elapsed since the were built.

In the event of a disaster as fire, flood, earthquake, landslides, etc…, in which a property is in ruins or very damaged and cannot be used again for the purposes to be occupied as a residence, if we abide by the current regulations on these events, it would be very complicated to grant a construction o repair permit for these properties, since it is against the concept of “out of ordination” and “assimilated to out of ordination” provided by the Decree.

The problem lies in a Decree which does not give any solution to the current legal condition of these properties, which have been tolerated by the Andalusian Regional Government and Town Councils for many years. During all these years, nobody has done anything at all on this matter and for that reason no legal measures can be legally adopted to restore their legality.

According to the first political reactions read on the papers about the burned properties, it seems that each particular case may be studied. In some cases, a forced and exceptional interpretation out of the legal framework would be adopted, so that those families with just one house would be allowed to rebuild and live on their non-developable lands as they did before the fire. The problem of this “shortcuts” to implement what the legal regulations do not provide is that a precedent is set, so that in the future event that any of the owners of the more than 100,000 properties built in non-developable land in Andalusia had a disaster of this kind, aren’t they also entitled to receive a similar treatment from the Public Administration? For this reason, the problem lies in a Decree for appearance’s sake, which does not solve the problem and is currently open to doubt in this type of situations.

Author: Gustavo Calero Monereo, C&D Solicitors (lawyers)
Torrox-Costa (Malaga/Costa del Sol/Andalucia)

TAX EXEMPTION WHEN BUYING A PROPERTY BEFORE 31/12/2012

Geschrieben von admin am 6 Juni, 2012. Veröffentlicht in english speaking solicitor, malaga. Keine Kommentare zu TAX EXEMPTION WHEN BUYING A PROPERTY BEFORE 31/12/2012

Regarding the current financial situation, which is reflected in the drop of property sales in Spain every three months, the Spanish Government has passed a new tax exemption. This exemption tries to promote the sale of properties and may become very interesting for both individuals and bodies corporate considering buying a real estate property in Spain in the short term, whether they purchase commercial premises, homes, offices, garages, plots, storage rooms, etc.

On the 12th of May 2012, the Central Government passed the Spanish Royal Decree-Law 18/2012 of 11th of May on the restructuring and sale of the property assets of the financial sector. This regulation included in its First, Second and Third Final Provisions the tax exemption for bodies corporate and individuals, whether resident or non-resident in Spain. This reform law allows all those buying a property from the 12th of May 2012 till the 31st of December 2012 to pay taxes only on the 50% of the capital gains tax when selling the property subsequently, whether in 1, 5, 10…etc years, while the remaining 50% is free of charges.

This exemption may save an important amount of money, because if a property is currently sold in Spain, capital gains are taxed at 21% for non-residents (19% from 2014), at 27% for resident taxpayers in Spain (21% from 2014) and at 30% for bodies corporate.

Here we present an example: imagine you are thinking about buying a property in Spain considering the current market opportunities; the price for this property may be EUR 200,000; the following eventual scenarios may occur according to the date of purchase when selling this property, for example, in 2017 for a sale price of EUR 270,000:

1) Non-resident taxpayers: EUR 70,000 of capital gains at 19% makes a total payment of EUR 13,000; if the purchase is performed before the 31/12/2012, the total payment would be EUR 6,650.

2) Resident taxpayers: EUR 70,000 of capital gains at 21% makes a total payment of EUR 14,700. If the purchase is performed before the 31/12/2012, the total payment would be EUR 7,350.

3) Corporate: EUR 70,000 of capital gains at 30% makes a total payment of EUR 21,000. If the purchase is performed before the 31/12/2012, the total payment would be EUR 10,500.

Obviously, this tax saving is not definitive in order to decide whether to buy a property or not in Spain, as it is not possible to know whether prices may go down much more nor the gains resulting from the eventual property sale. However, this fact may be a helpful factor to take a decision for those considering buying a property, especially for those non-speculative potential buyers whose main purpose is to enjoy this property for many years; thus, the longer they own the property, the greater the capital gains may be when selling it. Look at the figures and draw your own conclusions.

Author: Gustavo Calero Monereo, C&D Solicitors (lawyers)
Torrox-Costa (Malaga/Costa del Sol/Andalucia)

OCEAN VIEW PROPERTY, PROBABLY ANOTHER CASE OF PROPERTY FRAUD IN MALAGA

Geschrieben von admin am 16 Dezember, 2010. Veröffentlicht in malaga. Keine Kommentare zu OCEAN VIEW PROPERTY, PROBABLY ANOTHER CASE OF PROPERTY FRAUD IN MALAGA

Last Monday, the 13th of December, I read an article in the newspaper EL MUNDO in which they inform that about a hundred people from Northern Ireland were victims of a property fraud through the Ocean View Properties agency. It was supposed that the development company would build a housing estate in a plot located in Estepona (Malaga). Apparently fraud people made important payments on account of the purchase price in 2005 and 2006 for their future homes in Spain.

Concerning these off-plan property sales, directly from the developer (new property), apart from confirming whether the developer that sells is the owner of the buildable plot, and the relevant Town Hall has approved the urbanization project of this land, the buyer should request the immediate handing of the bank guarantee along with the interim payments that the buyer are going to carry, guaranteeing every payment for the building process until the granting of the purchase title deed. In this way, if the urbanization project may not be completed because of an administrative cause, because of the insolvency of the developer or any other cause non attributable to the buyer, then he can get back every payment made by enforcing this bank guarantee.

In this case, it is obvious that buyers and their solicitors did not require these bank guarantees to the developer. Now, the buyers should associate each other to force in the judicial proceedings, relying on a competent legal team that may advice them properly. It is essential to bring a lawsuit against them (civil action) or criminal charges (criminal action depending on whether it is considered a fraud or not) expeditiously so to call for the preventive seizure of all the goods that the developer may have, and all the administrators‘ goods in any country, to study if the administrators have other companies opened so to attack all these goods.

When trying to get back money, the judicial proceedings is very long, so fraudsters or possible insolvents can hide or squander their patrimony and the trail of the money would be lost. The result of it may not guarantee the success.

Conclusion, if you are going to buy off-plan directly from the developer, make sure of who is the owner of the plot, of the urbanization project, and, specially, do not pay anything without receiving the corresponding bank guarantees for these interim payment until the granting of the purchase title deed. If you have signed a purchase private contract with a developer and you have not still the bank guarantees, it is time to require them, because the financial situation of the developer is complicated and, in short, you never know. Our advice is, if in doubt, you consult a solicitor in order him to analyze your situation.

Author: Gustavo Calero Monereo, C&D Solicitors (lawyers)
Torrox-Costa (Malaga/Costa del Sol/Andalucia)