Friday, December 17, 2010

A helping hand from the UK

The UK government is currently dealing with more than a dozen different action groups made up of thousands of disenchanted expats who have lost hundreds of millions in property scams throughout Spain.

The situation is so severe that the government recently appointed a special overseas property advisor to help deal with it and to better understand the problems of those involved.

As a result, contentious issues such as illegal properties which do not have correct permits, cases where off-plan developments have not been built as specified and the length of time and cost involved in resolving property disputes were recently raised by the British ambassador to Spain with the Andalucian regional government and the Minister for Public Works and Housing.

A spokesman for the British Embassy in Spain said: "The UK government has no authority to interfere in any matters relating to Spanish domestic legislation, whether national, regional or local.

"However, we continue to express concern at the impact these problems are having on the lives of some of our citizens and Spain’s reputation abroad, and we have raised property issues with ministers in Spain and regional governments on numerous occasions.

"We understand the regional government is currently working with town halls in affected municipalities to draw up inventories of illegal properties and to seek solutions.

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