SPANISH LAND GRAB LAW

It is important to get the absolute facts addressed regarding the controversial land grab law (LRAU) that has effected many parts of the Valencia region. The law 'Ley Urbanistica de Valenciana' or (LUV) as it is known in Spain has made many current and potential new property owners take note after hearing about some horrendous stories of the land grab law in action just by reading the newspapers and television reports. This is far from scaremongering because the facts of the matter are that the law is in place and has already been served on hundreds of properties owned by overseas buyers.

The 1994 law introduced by the Valencia and Andalucian regions was to re-categorise land that was deemed as 'rustic' and re-classing it as 'urban' thus making it available for builders to develop. If you land was in the area recently classed as 'urban' then the developers could purchase your land.

The compensation paid to the owners was always below market value. If the whole of your land was lucky enough to escape the clutches of the developers they may just take part of your land and build a road through it. As if losing your land wasn't enough they would also demand that you pay towards the infrastructure to provide street lighting, water supply systems and road networks to the development.

Many of these properties were purchased many years ago and the buyers failed to do the correct research into the land they was purchasing through their Notary at the local Town Hall. Land effected was normally on the outskirts of a town or village or occupied some prime real estate near the coast.

Update:
The European Union has now acted on this controversial law and has given Madrid 2-months to act. It is demanding that the Valencia region conforms with European law or it will face legal action in the European Court of Justice.

Amendments have been made to the law by Madrid and the Valencian Government believes that they now meet the European requirements but this is far from satisfying the European Union. As it stands at present the new draft still has many flaws that need to be ironed out. Presently the authority that hands out the development contracts have the right to alter the contract during the granting and after the signing. The European Union stresses that this needs to be changed.

The land owners feel betrayed by the Spanish Government and do not trust them when seeking a redress of the current law. Due to this the 15,000 people that are effected by the lay decided to go directly to the European Union with their complaints.

It will be interesting to see how the Spanish Government react to the time squeeze initiated by Europe with the threat of legal action in the European Courts of Justice looming.