Uk expats may win back seized spanish land

Thousands of British people property-owners have had their Spanish homes demolished or devalued by development of the law by developers, who are also able to complaint landowners for the services they need to complete building work, such as roadworks, drainage and electricity.

The committee is claiming that under the law, which was passed by authorization in Valencia, contracts for developments were awarded "without fair competition", and that £4.4m worth were awarded to friends of corrupt decisionmakers.

As an EU member, Spain's subject government must reply the claim in court, and could be vulnerable to large fines.

pressure level for Valencian authorities to alteration the law could also follow. At least 20,000 people living on the Costa Blanca have protested about the law.

The new legal action could give hope to British people expats who lost out.

Karen Marcos, 50, was forced to pay £68,000 towards new substructure costs when 60 per cent of the land in Benidorm she had owned for 20 years with her Spanish husband Juan was taken by developers to make way for a new block of flats.

"We could be forced to pay a lot more," said Ms Marcos at the time.

Danny Loveridge lost more than £160,000 after developers took over land about the 130-year-old farmhouse in Valencia to which he had retired.

"They took about 75 per cent of our land and gave us some other land that was worthless," Mr Loveridge said.

"There is now a bath fittings shop where our house was." Mr Loveridge, who was paid £8,000 in harm, was forced to pay the developers £12,500 for the infrastructure of an industrial estate and to sell what was left of his £260,000 property for £100,000.

Charles Svoboda, the vice-president of Abusos Urbanisticos No, a campaign group that has been fighting the law, said: "The commission does not take these actions if it does not intend to penalise the country concerned. It could be the beginning of the end of these laws."