The Long and Winding (and treacherous!) road to our ongoing quest to obtaining planning permission for our project . . . . . . (Part 2)
When you buy a property in a developed or built up area the boundaries of the property are generally clear. Fences or walls exist and all parties concerned usually know where their property ends and someone else's begins. In the case of rural properties like ours, the lines are usually just as clear, but they will often be lines formed by trees & hedges, rivers or ancient stone walls. The principal is the same though - the agreed lines are the limits of the property.
Here in Spain the department that looks after boundaries and the like is called the "Department of the Catastral" - (Department of Maps). Or as we've named them now - the Department of Catastrophies.
It turns out that some 90% of all the rural maps held by the Catastral are incorrect. They thought they were doing ok but with the advent of Google Earth and similar mapping systems it turns out that they are not doing ok at all.
It's not entirely their fault - farmers have had a habit of selling off bits of property over the years but not telling the council or the Catastral (Capital Gains Tax avoidance) and so the maps are simply out of date. Now this isn't a problem if both parties are still alive, have their faculties and are still friends, but it becomes a huge problem if any (or all) of those criteria are not filled. Guess which camp we fall into . . . . . .
;-)
So, Ramon the friendly Farmers family sold some of their land many years ago without doing the correct paperwork. Then as the farm was left from one generation to another the neighbours gradually fell out with each until present time . . .
In the Pic attached you can see a green arrow leading from the end end of the municipal lane onto our front garden (which will be where our drive is) but it crosses a piece of property numbered 03 - this land belongs to Pepe. Pepe was annoyed that his enemy (or rather his families enemy) has sold a property (to us) and made some money so now to be difficult he has decided that maybe he doesn't want us driving over his land. The land in question is actually a big flat turning area where cars and farm vehicles can park or turn. The department of planning permission in Ainsa have said they will not proceed until this issue is resolved . . . .
Now the story get both complicated and intriguing - the architect called for a meeting on site to resolve the problem. The meeting included us - fresh back from the UK, Pepe the land owner, Ramon Snr (the previous property owner), estranged Ramon Jnr - who owns property No 5, the Architect and the Estate Agent. The estate agent says she was under the impression that access to our front garden was allowed because of the "historic right of way" that has been set over the years - but she is also the niece of Pepe, so she doesn't want to get too involved. Ramon Snr insists the historic right of way dictates access, but he won't talk to Pepe directly, only to the architect. Estranged Ramon Jnr says (grudgingly) that his dad is legally right but that he told him to have this stuff written down "before the property went on the market!" because he knew this would happen! The architect who is trying to sort this all out is not doing it purely out of the goodness of his own heart . . . .he owns the estate agency who, if push came to shove, would be sued for selling a property and not disclosing existing problems . . . .
Halfway through the meeting the "Family of Pepe" arrived. This is another niece and her husband and their 24 year old son. It turns out that they actually own the house and the land, not Pepe. Now they are annoyed with Pepe for causing trouble with the new neighbours (us) but they can't show their anger with Pepe in front of Ramon Snr - enemy of the family . . .. The niece and the architect come to an agreement that we will continue to drive across the land as always and this agreement is explained to us by their son - the only one in their family that speaks English.
Of course this is how it should have been from day one. There was never a chance of Pepe stopping us from accessing our land - but we didn't know that and it was a big worry.
So, we have an agreement written up, the architect draws up a plan showing all of our actual boundaries in their correct positions and everyone is happy. The agreement is signed the next day in the architects office and we take it to the municipal office for the town architect explaining to him that he can now proceed with our planning application . . . From here everything should be ok, right?
Two days later we get a message from the architect to say that Alberto, a different neighbour (and friend of Pepe's) who has a holiday home with land adjoining us on a different side has issued an objection to our planning application . . . . .
Grrrrr
Just when you thought it was safe to go into the water . . . . .
(to be continued . . . . .)
