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Knocked down In shades of the Priors, British expat forced to demolish 17-year home to live in a van on the land
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BARS and restaurants can open until 2am from tomorrow (Saturday) now that COVID restrictions have been relaxed. It is one of a series of measures announced, which will be reviewed again on July 2, that cover the Baleares. As well as extending opening times, terraces will be allowed to be used at 100% of capacity, with up to 12 people permitted on each table. Smoking remains prohibited. Moving inside, indoor spaces can only be used at 50% of capacity with a maximum of six people per table and a 1.5 metre distance left between groups. There is no boozing allowed at the bar - it can only be used for people eating in maximum groups of two and with 1.5 metres between groups, and they must be shut at midnight.
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GOING; GOING; GONE: Gurney Davey watches as his home torn down and reduced to a pile of rubble, while (top) the Priors
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Vol. 15 Issue 370 www.theolivepr ess.es June 2nd - June 15th 2021
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EXCLUSIVE By Dilip Kuner
British expat faces demolition of his 17 year home - and a spell in prison repeat of controversial Priors - in case
AN expat is facing prison for failing to demolish his home after he fell foul of a town hall’s ‘laissez faire’ planning rules. Gurney Davey, aged 67, only found out about the six-month sentence when a court document was delivered to a neighbour’s house. “I went straight to Tolox town hall with it. They told me I shouldn’t have received it yet,” he told the Olive Press. “They said they were going to be sending the notification to me once they had stamped it.” The news came as a massive bolt from the blue for Davey, whose wife has just died of cancer, which he believes worsened from the stress of the case. He had never been told about the court case that followed on from a Guardia Civil denuncia for an ‘illegal build’. Davey’s two-bed home - built in 2004 - should never have been built according to the Malaga court.
Legalise
In 2016, and then again in 2017, Davey was ordered to knock down his house, but, in common with a neighbour, he waited for more details. While his Spanish neighbour, Irene Millan, 29, did eventually hear from the court again, she was given six months to ‘legalise’ her property - an option Davey was never given. However, his neighbour’s apparent good luck turned into a poisoned chalice. Having spent €20,000 with the town hall to legalise the dwelling, the court finally refused to accept the new paperwork provided by the council. Instead, demolition was ordered which went ahead last week. To add insult to injury Irene’s 54-year-old father, Manuel Mil-
DEMOLITION: Expat Gurney
Davey is being forced to knock
lan, whose name was on the deeds, was also sentenced to six months jail and handed a fine of €6 a day for a year. Now Davey is terrified he is set to lose his home at any moment. It comes just two months since his wife Diana died from bowel
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down his own house and faces
cancer, at the age of 71, in April. “We thought we had done everything right at the time. We got legal advice and went through lawyer in order to get permissiona to build the home. “Diana fought breast cancer for six years before bowel cancer I am sure the stress brought it on.” The couple, originally from Suffolk in the ALL AREAS COVERED UK, spent €150,000 4G UNLIMITED building their property. INTERNET “It came as a IDEAL FOR package - a STREAMING TV plot with a new home on it.” ALSO IPTV, Davey admits SATELLITE TV he and his wife were perhaps tel: (0034) 952 763 840 naive to follow info@theskydoctor.com the advice of their lawyer. www.theskydoctor.com The lawyer,
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that were illegally given planning permission by the former mayor, Juan Vera, Davey, 67, told the Olive Press who landed up with a prison sentence. this week. Speaking half-way through Fri- He was eventually day’s demolition that cost him told it had to be de€1,600, he added it had actually molished to avoid a six-month prison sencome as ‘some sort of relief’. Having been forced to hire a tence with the news digger, after disconnecting the coming just after his wife died electricity supply and water, he from bowel cancer, at the age was on the final leg of a legal of 71. “But thankfully it is now battle that began in 2004. over,” he explained. “It has been going on for so long now, Build I’ve finally come to terms with That was the year the legal firm, what needs to be done. HavManzanares, informed him he ing it demolished was actually would be getting a licence for an a relief.” almacen (or storeroom), which As he still owns the land, he would allow him to build the can still live on it - just not in house in Tolox, near Ronda. a house. “We thought we had done every- So now the father-of-three thing right. We got legal advice is planning a minimalist life and went through a lawyer in staying in a converted van, so order to get permission to build that his five dogs still have the home,” Gurney explained. the space to roam. But he was later told that his “This land is my home, it is house was one of around 350 my life and these dogs are all I have952 left.” 147 834 Whether or not he still faces a prison sentence, is yet to be confirmed. See pages 12 & 16 It is not the first time British expats have had their homes demolished in AndaluEXCLUSIVE By Katherine Brook
The
IT was a day that disgraced Spain. A day that an expat was forced to demolish his home of 17 years, despite having paid for planning permission. Brick by brick, tile by tile, British resident Gurney Davey tore down the house he had built for €150,000, after receiving shocking advice from a Malaga legal firm. That it came just two months after his wife, Diana, died from cancer simply magnifies the s h e e r tragedy. “I was d i s traught at first, m y blood pressure was sky high and then I lost my wife,”
NE GO
Music and cocktail bars can open until 2am but dancing is not allowed and people must be seated at tables. A pilot night will be held at a disco on Palma’s Paseo Maritimo on June 26 to see if it is feasible to reopen nightclubs. When it comes to weddings, baptisms and communions, 120 people are allowed to attend outdoor events and 50 indoors, with dancing allowed as long as everyone wears a facemask. Up to 200 people will be allowed outdoors or 100 indoors if all attendees are vaccinated or have had a negative antigen or PCR test done just before the event.
six months jail
from legal firm Manzanares, told them that planning permission would be applied for as an almacen - or ‘warehouse’. This way it would come under the remit of Tolox town hall, which would give permission and later they could ‘legalise’ the property. The language of one legal letter, seen by the Olive Press, suggests this would be a mere formality. But the property never got legalised. In fact, the Tolox mayor of the time, Juan Vera, has since been jailed and fined for his part in scheme to allow up to 350 prop-a erties to be built on land classified as ‘rural’. In most cases he had used the very same ‘lax’ procedure of applying to build an ‘almacen’ to try to keep the prying eyes of the Junta authorities away. “We thought that was the way things worked in Spain,” said Davey, a retired builder. “We went to see a lawyer and got advice. It turns out that was not
the smart thing to do. “Why would we deliberately try to build illegally? It makes no sense that we would sell up everything in the UK and risk it all.” Now Davey’s first thoughts are to avoid serving the jail sentence. He said: “My lawyer is trying to get the sentence suspended.”
Flatten
In the meantime he has been forced to ask the town hall for permission to knock his own property down. “I will do it myself. I will borrow a JCB from someone and flatten my home of the past 17 years. will not let the town hall do it andI charge me more money.” He added: “I’ve no idea where to live afterwards. But the land still mine - maybe I can live in is a tent.” Tolox Ayuntamiento refused to comment, citing data protection laws.
cia, with the Priors, in Almeria, the most famous victims. They still live in the garage of their house today, over 10 years since the house was knocked down in Vera.
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