Inditex Obtains Licence to Build a new Textile Design Building in Sabón

28 February 2019 – La Opinión A Coruña

The Local Government in Arteixo has granted a construction licence to Inditex to erect a new building at its headquarters, on the Sabón industrial estate, which will be used for textile design activity. The plot on which the new structure will be situated is located on the corner of Avenida de la Diputación with A Ponte (opposite the entrance to the ITV). The plans presented by the company to the municipality to obtain the municipal authorisation reflects that the construction work will cost €31.5 million.

The multi-national company will use this new space for “textile design activity”, according to the construction licence. The height of the new building will be 24 metres and it will sit on a plot measuring 54,300 m2. The authorisation granted by the municipality indicates that the deadline for starting the construction work is six months and for its completion is three years (…).

Original story: La Opinión A Coruña (by Iván Aguiar)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Barcelona’s Town Hall Asks Airbnb to Remove 2,577 Illegal Tourist Apartments from its Database

24 May 2018 – Eje Prime

Barcelona wants to put an end to adverts for unlicenced apartments. The Town Hall of the Catalan capital has asked Airbnb to remove a total of 2,577 illegal tourist apartments that are currently advertised on its platform. Janet Sanz, deputy mayor for urban planning in Barcelona, confirmed that the list of identified apartments has now been handed over to the company.

The Town Hall has explained that the Airbnb team responsible for removing the adverts, located in Ireland, received the list on Thursday. Moreover, it has highlighted that it has already opened sanction proceedings against the owners of those unlicensed apartments, but not against the company itself.

In this sense, the Town Hall of Barcelona is only planning to impose sanctions on Airbnb if the company refuses to eliminate the adverts for the illegal tourist apartments, as established by the regulations of the Generalitat de Catalunya. The local government expects the platform to withdraw the adverts within a few days like it did last summer.

Similarly, Sanz has explained that the Town Hall is scheduled to meet Airbnb next week to consider a technological proposal designed by the platform to avoid the advertising of illegal apartments.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

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

Anti-Eviction Law: Public Bodies Denounce Bank Breaches

22 July 2015 – El Economista

The monitoring of the measures adopted by the Government to alleviate the hardship of families doomed to eviction is not proving to be as orderly as had been expected. Yesterday, the Bank of Spain revealed, in its Monitoring Report for 2014, that complaints had been received from “several public bodies” about “various credit entities” regarding the implementation of the so-called Code of Good Practice.

The aforementioned code was introduced in 2012 to force the restructuring of debt owed by underprivileged households, to grant them more favourable conditions, including significant discounts, “daciones in pago” and even, letting families stay in their homes in return for the payment of minimal rents to avoid forcing them out onto the street. The adoption of the code is voluntary, but once adhered to, its application becomes obligatory. The financial institutions signed up on mass, more than anything to avoid public embarrassment, given that the list of members is made public.

Yesterday, sources in the sector acknowledged that certain local and regional authorities have filed complaints about the monitoring process.

Local and regional governments

This represents a leap, albeit not in terms of scale, but maybe in terms of the focus of the conflict. The adoption of good practices and consumer protection measures are still major unfinished projects for the sector, whose reputation was seriously damaged during the crisis, due to the poor marketing of products such as preference shares, the scandalous retirements of managers from rescued entities and even, the sale of mortgages with floor clauses.

Conscious of the extent of the damage, numerous bankers publicly admitted their mistakes and sought to make amends. Last year, the supervisory body itself bolstered its schemes to ensure the proper marketing of products and the rapid resolution of disputes, through the creation of the Department for Market Conduct and Complaints, which took on a strengthened version of the role previously performed by the former Director General of Supervision and complaints service. The Department was launched on 1 October and in just three months (to 31 December), it opened 18 investigations and one inspection in situ.

The Department directs its efforts on the basis of alerts logged by other units of the Bank of Spain, by public and private institutions and above all, by customer complaints. One of its operations last year involved the aforementioned analysis of complaints regarding the use of the Code of Good Practices; and another also verified that the granting of consumer credit to certain firms complied with the necessary conditions regarding transparency and customer protection. According to the supervisory body, that most recent investigation was activated as a result of a complaint “from a public body, which filed a complaint against a number of lenders”. (…).

In 2014, the Bank of Spain forced the withdrawal or rewording of 132 adverts published in the press and online. The most positive piece of data to result from the year is that customer complaints decreased for the first time since 2011, by 15%, to 29,500. Nevertheless, that still represents a near-record volume compared with the 10,000 or 15,000 claims that were typically processed in the years leading up to the outbreak of the floor clause conflict.

Original story: El Economista (by Eva Contreras)

Translation: Carmel Drake