Paying the penalty for neighbour's illegal build

[dredskiParticipant]

This takes place in Mallorca – Sa Pobla town hall to be precise. We have spent over 5000 euros on architect’s fees for our plans to be rejected by said town hall on the basis that one of our neighbours has used up the allowable build space with an illegal build. This is a round house with 4 properties on what is considered to be a single plot – rather odd and clearly an issue in this case. We have consulted our architect who has dealt with the town hall and when we did a previous build in 2007/8 they were aware of the illegal build…and said nothing. He contacted them about the allowable space we could legally have back in May ’15 and received a phone call (nothing written) to say what were allowed…no mention of any issue. We have progressed on this basis in good faith and now find it’s been blocked – this, by the way, is to build a 30 square metre room (it’s not a palace). We have contacted our Palma lawyer who, has been very responsive, but is recommending an urban law specialist. It seems the town hall is abiding by the letter of new planning laws but no mention of any issue prior to this and our architect was taken completely by surprise. We suspect the town hall are trying to use us to get to the illegal neighbour and, we are pretty sure, this isn’t the only issue with this person. They want us to get the neighbour to confess to their illegal build….like that’s going to happen or maybe sue/denounce them….like that’s going to work. Do the town hall not have any jurisdiction? I would have thought so but…

I know this is possibly a unique situation, certainly unusual, but does anyone have any experience or advice? Thanks for anything!

 

 

[Mark StücklinKeymaster]

Wow, that’s a complicated situation. It’s interesting to learn from your case, but I doubt anyone reading this can help advise you. This is a job for a specialist lawyer.

Town planning in Spain is a disaster, and the officials one has to deal with can be a nightmare.

[dredskiParticipant]

I’ll let you know. We have engaged a local, urban planning specialist but no news yet…Christmas doesn’t help, of course.  🙁

[dredskiParticipant]

Well, by way of a quick update, we’re not dead in the water it seems. We heard from our architect that the municipal architect has changed – back to the one who granted our original permissions a few years ago. Our architect is optimistic but no firm news, yet…..more later.

Also, it’s interesting to read about the use of drones in Minorca to catch illegal builds…we need some of that.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by  dredski.

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