This is most atrocious.

First, the retired people have put their life savings in their dream homes. All of sudden Spanish authorities wake up and declare: illegal. Does it make any sense?

Second, why did they permit these so-called illegal constructions all along? Where they in deep slumber? Did the Spanish authorities punish anybody for these open cheating and looting. Real estate agents, officials and many are more guilty than those, who built their houses.

It is just like, after a game is played, the rules are determined and winner is declared. It is unjust and wrong from all angles!
Regards,

Krishna R. Kumar, Udupi, India

The problem in Spain is the lenghtly legal processes and the time that it takes to arrive to action as a result of the legal process. i know of one case in this municiple where land illegally built on by a currupt major took 18 years for the owners to recover. Another problem is that complaints to the E.U. are ineffective since the system is overloaded and the powers available amount to little more than saber rattling. There does not exist to my knowledge an Authority in the U.K.that is dedicated to the protection of british consumers,investing abroard nor to that matter are the authorities too concerned about spanish advertiseing in the U.K. My lenghty attemps to inform and warn consumers in the U.K. Fell on death ears, the result wil be hurt and anguish to many. In conclusion, when will a for the min. a gov.body be set up in U.K. where info may be accumalated about suspect houseing, When will measures be taken to insure greater powers to the legal auth. of the E.U. to ensure that com

tom, lajares, la oliva , , fuerteventura.is.canarias

When will the E.U. apply pressure on spain to create more courts to clear the rediculous back log of cases that have accumerlated ref. this problem and in general. When will the E.U. bring efective measures to bear to curb the over biulding in Spain. 3 prvious comlaints have been made to Spain by the E.U. BUT ..last year Spain realised more building than U.K. , France, and Germany combined. When a countries labour force , (the franco regiem halted all economic and educative development), is dedicated in the main to contsruction due to the lack of education and diversification the stress on virgin terrain will continue to satisfie new construction. Urgent measures are required by the E.U. to protect Spain from entering into a spiral of self destruction. Only diversification of industry can save Spain, if not ,soon Spain will be cap in hand to the U.E. with an unresolvable problem of unemployment of its ever incresing construction labour force. Much more info.and views available here.

tom, lajares, la oliva , , fuerteventura.is.canarias

A place in the sun - how nice!

Neil, Gloucestershire, England

The Britons who face the demolition of their home are just victims of the unscrupulousness of a few, but so are the Spanish people and our beautiful land

Emilio , Epsom,

at least if you tried to understand and talk in spanish, I'm portuguese and I feel misself guted whit the beavor of the brits in my country on the Algarve; in this small cafe the dutch tried to speak portuguese, germans too, norwegens and when this english couple with the cogny acssent come, gess what??!!, and acordin with the people from the cafe they be living there for more than ten years... would you respect me if I din't talk in english where live????

rui pedro, colne, lancashire

The EU should enforce specific performance because of depth and breadth of the conspiracy. To not do so opens the door for a repeat anywhere in the EU.
Frank,USA

frank, dallas,

Many EU countries either do not have well established laws or are so arbitrary like France (where they now pressure banks not to have accounts of foreigners without resisdnece permits). Spain is one of the worst where corruptions are all over, like many Latin American countries such as Argentina where majorities of judges, real estate developers, local officials, police are so corrupt. Probably corruption is their way of life.

yasuyuki tateishi, New York, NY, USA

I guess it's not too late to get rid of all the illegally built houses that have devastated the Spanish coast and near coastal areas. We should try and succeed in stopping our government here from concreting over our own country. I am not at all sure that there were innocent home buyers in Spain. Greedy yes.

Emily P, cambridge, UK

You ain't seen nothing yet. Foolish Brits have been happily emigrating to Eastern Europe in increasing numbers, often to states that have been chaotic for centuries prior to perhaps the last decade or so.
Perhaps our merry pensioners should have spent more time reading history than watching soaps on the telly. Blind faith in shiny new new democracies will be the undoing of many.

John East, Scunthorpe, UK

Before some of you get too pleased with the Spanish government's decision to "stand up" to the developers - go and have a look at what they're doing to the Pyrenees and the coastline in Galicia; they haven't learned a thing.

The whole system is corrupt. It is an anomaly within Europe and provides local village and town councils with too much of a temptation in a country where tribal politics means no-one gets elected out of office for misbehaviour.

Andrew, York/Huesca, UK/Spain

Mark and Chris are spot-on: If Brits wish to be ignorant, or even deliberately flout Spanish law, then they are simply reaping the rewards they deserve.

I've only just moved out here to Spain (haven't bought yet), but you can be sure I'll be being very careful to ensure I buy a legal property.

Ade, Cádiz, Spain

all was well while the buildings came up and the brits invested - this didnt happen over night. These 'uncorrupt' Spanish officials want everyone to believe that they didnt know about this as it was happening - if so they're not fit to run the country. I the EU should protect these people, some who have invested their life savings in retiring to Spain. (nb i have no investments in spain nor do personally know anyone)

nush, harrow, uk

Caveat emptor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bruce L. Northwood, Washington, D.C., USA

Spain is a great place to live but remember," don´t leave your brains at GatwicK." There are crooks everywhere including in the U.K.

Charles Morgan , Madrid , Spain

Could it be that the Spanish are fed up with the number of immigrants and are using these tactics to get rid of them. Echoes of the Uk where we are anti immigration, what's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Chris, Worthing,

I picked up a spanish chap in the back of my cab 'once' and we were chatting about the British living in Spain, and I asked him very directly, do the Spanish like the English, he went very quiet No came back the replay..... not so with the French P.Kalli, woodford Essex.

paul kalli, wooodford, Essex

I have lived in Spain for 17 years and this sad story just confirms what it is so easy to forget here: under the smiling surface they are corrupt, incompetent and capricious. This wouldn´t' ve happened under Franco.

Baron Monty, Barcelona,

The sooner the ugly concrete boxes and the ugly TV dishes are removed the better.

Marco Borg, London, UK

I had a client who back in the eighties who was near bankrupted after spending £1 000 000 on coastal "development land" , and then found that his cosy relationship with the local mayor was now being overseen by the authorities in Madrid. He lost over £1500 000 once professional fees etc. had been settled - and this was twenty years ago. Caveat emptor.

Arnold Ward, Weybridge, Surrey, UK

Mark from Cardiff is right. I partly live in Spain and the ignorance and arrogance of most Brits here is simply amazing. The dubious legality of many house has been known for years, but somehow these people thought they were above the law. It's not only that they were too stingy to hire an independent lawyer, most simply didn't want to know anyway. This is not to condone the practices that have been going on for years here, but if you really wanted to know if your building was legal, you could. Most simply didn't.

Chris, London,

And that's nothing compared to the great amount of cement that has been asphixiating the earth and dooming most natural habitats to exticntion. I applaud the Spanish Government and urge other nations to follow their example, before we all end up in some giant planetary car park.

eugene, heidelberg, germany

Mark is right. It's tough, to say the least, for the Brits who are caught in this awful situation, but the concreting has to stop. Corrupt local officials have been bulldozing supposedly protected zones for profit for years, and at last Spain is beginning to do something about protecting some of its natural heritage. The loss to wildlife and the environment in many areas - not just the coast - has been incalculable

John Adams, Péault, France

There is no doubt that the Spanish government must be held responsible for they knew what was happening and did nothing to stop it, even warn the criminal developers and local officials. Claiming they did not is no excuse. The system was that many developers built illegally for they knew that all that would happen would be a small fine that could be added to the cost of the home but the Provincial Governments only jumped on this when it had been running for years until about two-three years ago and they upped the fines to make it uneconomic. We have empty unfinished new houses and apartment blocks standing near us that have been this way for over two years. Some were recently demolished including the foundations.

But as the saying goes, the buck stops at the top, so the innocent home buyers must be fully compensated and if it takes the EU Court, so be it. And quickly for the stress is killing many of the retired people who have lost all their life savings

B J Deller, Marbella, Spain

My parents in law have a flat in Spain and I've known about this problem for years. At the end of the day it boils down to one simple thing, Brits abroad who couldn't or wouldn't look into the legal situation properly. They couldn't be bothered to employ their own independent lawyers but depended on the developers to tell them everything and thought that as Brits they were above the law. I've met these kind of people, they complain because the Spanish are enforcing planning law but wouldn't think of doing half the things they do in Spain back in Britain. The answer is LEARN SOMETHING about the country you are going to live in, don't trust anyone (I didn't when I bought my house in the UK) and employ an independent Spanish speaker to check out the real situation for you. My father in law was lucky he speaks Spanish, having done it as a degree and knew enough to trust no one - but then he just bought a house here and didn't trust the estate agent here either. The owners are to blame.

Mark, Cardiff,

Anglos beware....Mexico did the dirty deed a few yrs ago in Baja California ,on other than Mexican nationals, as well...Those in retirement were out of home and funds.....

Mr Tim, san marcos, U s of A