Some attempts of the State to remedy (via pecuniary compensation for the demolition of property) the consequences of which the Courts have declared null and void the building licences

Abstract

The unorganized growth in urban planning in Spain in the last decade of the 20 century and the beginning of the 21st century has provoked diverse negative consequences for the public interest and specially for the large number of foreigners that have been affected by the serious problem of having declared void and null, building licenses for their properties which were bought in good faith, only to discover that they are obliged to demolish such properties.
Our planning laws contemplate a possible compensation for the cancelation of a building license, except in the case of fraud, error or negligence on behalf of the injured party. But along with this demand for the replacement of the integral property of the injured party, it raises the constitutional demand to carry out the decisions of the Courts in its full terms, which corresponds exclusively to the judicial power, as well as to proceed to its execution.
To reconcile all the parties involved, we will show the various legal initiatives which have been taken by the different autonomous regions, which have been declared void and null by the Constitutional Court, basically due to the fact that regional parliaments have not got legal powers to regulate process law and additionally, because such initiatives would limit the exclusive faculties of the judges to execute their own decisions. The State also has adopted legal measures which are relevant in criminal and public process laws, so as to try and give a response to this problem. We will demonstrate and show the difficulties in applying such measures, specially the public process law area.