The other day I noticed a short article in the Valencian press about a civil case between a Spanish company called Morarim SL, and Zodiac Villas, a Surrey-based estate agency that sold property investments in Spain. The case sheds some light on the dirty dealings typical of the Spanish property business over the last decade.

According to the article (at levante-emv.com), Zodiac Villas, a broker, and Morarim, a property company, sold off-plan properties without divulging that the land was agricultural and was unlikely to get planning permission. According to Morarim, both companies knew that “the plots were agricultural and could not get the necessary building licence until the land was reclassified as urbanisable.” That means British investors were duped into buying agricultural land that had no value as development land.

Now it seems that British investors weren’t the only ones being duped. The owner of Morarim, named only as Guillermo A. P, is suing Zodiac Villas and its owner, named only as Chris M., for 1.5 million Euros in unpaid fees for land sales.

Just another instance of dodgy dealings in the Spanish property business, and one that illustrates the huge sums of money involved.