Portugal 
Italy 
Greece 
8 November 2018 – Inmodiario
Administrative Court number 1 of Pontevedra has confirmed the demolition order for 52 homes in the Raeiros urbanisation, located in San Vicente do Mar (O Grove), as well as of the roads and large movements of earth undertaken in the area, classified as non-buildable land with special coastal protection. An appeal against the ruling may be filed with the TSXG (the Superior Court of Justice of Galicia).
In the ruling, the judge dismissed the appeal presented by one of the owners against the resolution adopted in October 2017 by the Agency for the Protection of Legal Urban Planning (APLU), which requires the owners of the 52 villas to comply with a demolition order dated 2014.
The demolition was decreed by the Xunta for the first time in 2010. The Administrative Court also imposed the payment of the costs on the claimant.
The ruling explains that the legislation prohibits the residential use of that type of land, a woodland area that overlooks the Balea-Raeiros beach.
In 1993, the owner obtained a licence to build an aparthotel for tourist use on the site, but, according to the judgement, constructed 52 terraced villas for residential use and sold them to different owners.
In 2007, the Xunta required them to implement hotel use and to dissolve the parcelation by joining together all of the houses into a single asset, but that order was ignored.
In 2010, the APLU ordered the demolition and ordered it again in 2014. The Administrative Court number 1 of Pontevedra confirms in its ruling that most recent demolition order.
“The construction licence was linked to the activity. Without the hotel use (without parcelation) everything that has been constructed lacks sense”, said the judge in the ruling, in which he also pointed to the possibility that the hotel licence granted in 1993 may have expired.
Original story: Inmodiario
Translation: Carmel Drake