demolition order and options

[Irishguyabroad]

my family currently own a property in Andalusia, my father initially bought a house that he was told he could expand to 100m2.

You can guess what happened next, anyway, to cut a long story short we have seen an order from the court (although this hasn't been formally served) ordering demolition!

As this hasn't been served yet on us, or posted to the house, we have been advised (by abogado) to wait 5 years and then apply for this order to be struck out? I am a bit unsure about this approach, but willing to wait it out to see what happens (5 years will be approx 12 mths away)

I'm wondering what the options would be if we have to demolish, could we put a static caravan on the site? How strict is the planning to do that?

Failing that I am considering washing my hands of the whole ordeal and going and buying an old house somewhere else to avoid this madness, but would be sad to leave the area.

[costakid]

If it was me I wouldn’t knock it down until I had used all my options. My advice would be to see it out. In the end you will be able to put a mobile on the site. Was it a dwelling or a barn before your father developed it?

[Irishguyabroad]

There was a small house there. It was knocked down totally through miscommunication before the new house was built (arggghh don't ask!)

It has just been such a nightmare I'm almost considering an old town house as I don't want to throw good money after bad. I came into all this quite late on and frankly it has been a total mess to try and deal with. I love this area of spain though and as I said would be very sad to leave.

So you are saying if we are forced to knock the house down we should at least be ok to put a static on it?

[dxf]

Hola

Firstly the demolition order does not have to be formally served, it can just appear in your local area boletin and that is sufficient. You can't "just walk away". You can sell it, even with the demolition order on it. You don't say which area you are in but what you need is an abogado that deals with demolition orders day in and day out (there are several areas where this is "the norm") so don't worry that your case is unique.

There used to be a rule that if you built a house and nothing official happened for four years, then it couldn't be demolished. This was changed to six years, but in your case, a demolition order can be "for life". They could in theory make you re-build what was on the property before the new house was built.

The advise to wait is a good one; laws are being changed and it may be that one of the changes will be to your advantage. It is not a nice situation to be in, but I suggest to the best of your ability, you carry on as if nothing had happened until the next event - whatever that maybe.

Davexf