The Spanish LRAU Land Grab Law and the fight against "Weapons of Mass Construction"
From the number of emails we have received there appears to be quite a bit of misunderstanding about the LRAU land grab law and particularly about the areas within Spain that are covered by the LRAU law.
T he LRAU land grab law applies only to the area under the juridiction of the Valencia state government.
The Valencian government passed the LRAU land grab law to speed up urban development in 1994. This law, known as the ‘Ley Reguladora de la Actividad Urbanistica’ (LRAU), set out to ensure developments were built with sufficient public services and facilities. However, the law was badly drafted and subsequent abuse by unscrupulous developers has resulted in some property owners having their land compulsorarily purchased, at prices far below commercial values, and to make matters far worse, receiving huge bills for the development.
The Spanish land grab law enables property developers to ask that land be reclassified from rural to urban without the owners' permission. Publication of this change must be made, but only fifteen working days are allowed to make an objection. With many absentee holiday homeowners this notification is entirely inadequate.
The Valencia land grab law applies throughout Valencia but it's effect is felt mainly on the highly developed coastal strip.
Other areas of Spain appear to be intent on copying Valencia’s land grab law as a way of promoting development but it is hoped that they will learn from the mistakes of the Valencian government. Groups opposing the Valencia land grab law are now highly organised and vocal, additionally there has been considerable international publicity about the land grab law. Some of this publicity has been poorly informed and resulted in confusion rather than clarity. The publicity regarding the land grab laws has undoubtedly resulted in a reduction of interest by foreign purchasers in buying property in Valencia and the Costa Blanca thereby slowing growth rather than promoting it as was the original intent of the law.
The LRAU land grab law does not apply in Andalusia, but if something similar were to be introduced by the Andalucian government it is unlikely its effects will be felt in the highly rural area in which we operate. Non-urban or rural land is already rigorously protected from development and it is difficult to get permission to build new properties on rural land.
Some useful links about the Valencia land grab laws are listed below.
http://www.costablanca-news.com Land grab news.
http://www.abusos-no.org/ This is a website for the opposition group to the dreaded LRAU Land Grab Laws of Valencia. It has many useful pages and links to media articles, plus the latest news about the fight of the ordinary person against these pernicious laws.
