Tag: appeal

Constitutional Court Suspends Tax On Empty Homes

4 May 2016 – Expansión

The Constitutional Court (TC) has suspended three laws approved by the Catalan Parliament, after they were appealed by the Government at the end of April. The laws in question are: the law that taxes empty homes, the local government law and the law for equality between men and women. The appeals have been accepted for processing, which means that the laws themselves have been temporarily suspended. Nevertheless, the acceptance for processing and the temporary suspension do not represent a ruling of any kind regarding the outcome of the appeal.

According to the acting Justice Minister, Rafael Catalá, who spoke at a press conference following the Council of Ministers meeting held on 22 April, the Government is challenging the law that establishes a tax on empty homes because that taxable event is already taxed under the current system for financing local governments, which provides for surcharges of up to 50% under IBI. (…)

The appeal against this Catalan law is surprising if we consider the fact that the Stability Program, which the Government has just submitted to Brussels, praises this law as one of the measures that the regional Governments are using to try to guarantee revenues “such as the tax on empty homes and the tax on tourist accommodation”, it says.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sonae Files Complaint Against Store Opening Hour Restrictions

25 April 2016 – Expansión

Legal action/ The group behind the retail brands Worten, Sport Zone and Zippy is rebelling against the store opening restrictions being imposed by the Generalitat in certain areas of Valencia.

Sonae SR, a division of the Portuguese group Sonae, the retail specialist, is on the war path against the Valencian government. The company will start legal proceedings, probably tomorrow or on Wednesday, against the General Trade Directorate of the Community of Valencia, after that body took the decision in March to prohibit stores and shopping centres from opening on Sundays and Bank Holidays in certain areas of Valencia, including the area around the Arena shopping centre (pictured above).

Rafael Maortua, from the law firm Main Servicios Profesionales and the legal representative for Sonae SR, estimates that the opening hour restrictions will have a negative impact of more than 20% on the Sonae SR group’s sales at that shopping centre. The company has calculated that, under the new legislation, they will have to close their doors on an additional 38-40 days per year.

To avoid this, they are filing a claim that will be lodged with the secretary of Spain’s National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC). (…).

Although the main driver behind the recent restriction on openings hours is the protection of small retailers, Maortua says “Consumers are not going to change their decision to shop on a Sunday or Bank Holiday because their favourite store is closed..”.

The legal representative of Sonae SR points out that when trade was liberalised in Madrid, 20,000 new jobs were created. (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Ana Antón)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Constitutional Court Temporarily Supends Basque Housing Law

18 April 2016 – Cinco Días

The Constitutional Court (TC) has admitted the appeal filed by the central Government against the Basque Housing Law, which provides for the temporary expropriation of homes by banks, amongst other measures, and has suspended it as a precautionary measure whilst it decides whether or not it complies with the Constitution.

The Government filed an appeal of unconstitutionality against the Basque Housing Law, which, in addition to the aforementioned measure, makes provisions for other initiatives, such as the imposition of a fee on empty homes and the recognition of the subjective right to a home, which will be enforceable in court.

The Basque Parliament approved the Housing Law in June 2015, following lobbying by PSE and with the support of EH Bildu and UPyD. It was rejected by the PP and the PNV. In its appeal, Mariano Rajoy’s Government requested that the admission procedure for the law be temporarily suspended until the substance of the matter has been resolved, as it is allowed to do under the Organic Law of the TC.

The court of guarantees issued a ruling in which it declared the appeal admissible and suspended the law, which does not determine the final outcome, but rather grants a period of five months, which may be renewed, during which time the aforementioned law will not apply and a decision can be taken regarding its future.

In its acceptance and suspension ruling, the TC announced that it will transfer the file “to the Congress of Representatives and the Senate, through their respective Presidents, as well as the Basque Government and Basque Parliament, through their respective Presidents, so that they can make an appearance and formulate the allegations that they deem appropriate, within a period of fifteen days.

Original story: Cinco Días

Translation: Carmel Drake

Valdebebas: Supreme Court Ruling Undermines Construction Plans

28 March 2016 – El Confidencial

Madrid’s High Court of Justice (TSJM) has dealt another fatal blow to the PAU real estate developments of Ciudad Aeroportuaria and Parque Valdebebas, the area in the north of the capital, where around 12,000 homes are expected to be built. According to a ruling on 4 March, the Administrative Litigation Division has partially accepted the appeal filed by the Association for Responsible Urban Development and has declared null and void the Special Land Sub-division Plan.

The decision by the First Section of the TSJM’s Administrative Litigation Division, chaired by Francisco Javier Canabal, overthrows the approval agreed by the Town Hall of Madrid on 30 October 2014, which modified the detailed plan APE 16.11 for the Ciudad Aeroportuaria and Parque Valdebebas. Although the Town Hall, now chaired by Manuela Carmena, the Community of Madrid, led by Cristina Cifuentes, and the Valdebebas Compensation Board called for the dismissal of the appeal presented in February 2015, the fact is that the ruling calls into question the urban development once again even though it had already been approved by the various administrations.

The plaintiffs allege that the Special Plan, dated 30 October 2014, modified the buildability of the area to include a large shopping centre in the development, with the allocation of space amounting to 145,794 m2 and an annex to it, measuring 36,488 m2 for other tertiary use. The Court emphasised that the Association “was right” when it said that this plan “modifies the structural organisation”, since land transformation operations inherently require an appropriate relationship between public space and collective amenities, and population density. (…).

The Town Hall and Community of Madrid must now decide whether to submit an appeal against this decision, a position that is difficult to adopt given that the new heads of Ahora Madrid and the PP in the aforementioned institutions have inherited a lawsuit fought by their predecessors, Ana Botella and Ignacio González. Moreover, they should take into account that in May the resolution is expected of a previous appeal against improprieties conducted by the Town Hall of Madrid, with the correction of the General Urban Plan (PGOU) approved in August 2013, an emergency action through which the Town Hall corrected the legality of Valdebebas, which had been suspended months earlier, following a ruling issued by the Supreme Court in September 2012.

Pryconsa, in question

But, the factor that calls everything into question, above all, are the plans of Pryconsa, which in December 2015, purchased 14 plots of land from the Valdebebas Compensation Board for €56.7 million. It acquired 92,000 m2 of buildable land, where it plans to build between 900 and 1,000 social housing properties (VPPL). Pryconsa paid just over approximately €600/m2 for the land, a price that is significantly below the €800/m2 that the Compensation Board obtained for one of the VPPL plots that it put up for auction after the summer and which was sold to the cooperative Esta Gestión 100, backed by the architect Enrique Toboada.

That operation ate up the last residential land assets owned by the Compensation Board and practically used up all of the land allocated to social housing in this urban development, given that now less than 5,000 m2 of land remains available. Moreover, following the transaction, only one third of the residential land is available in this area. The plots awarded are located next to one of the main squares in the new neighbourhood, close to the future shopping centre and JOYFE school, whose land also formed part of the assets sold by the Compensation Board, and where construction work is expected to begin soon.

Following the TSJM’s decision, all of these plans have been thrown back up in the air, a real setback for the developers that have bought land in this area of Madrid, located to the south of La Moraleja neighbourhood and to the north of the IFEMA exhibition grounds.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Agustín Marco)

Translation: Carmel Drake