Last May, the Supreme Court of Andalucia revoked a building licence issued on a development in Marbella, two years after the building was finished and the first occupants took up their homes. The expected consequences for these owners in the wake of the ruling are difficult to establish but it is unlikely that their worst fears will materialise, that is, demolition. Notwithstanding the warning effect of the court order, some real estate agencies, in particular Calahonda Estates have continued to market units in the above development, known as Banana Beach, offering legal advice, or rather in-house legal advice, a possibly worse option than not having advice or even engaging the services of a Siberian matrimonial lawyer.
The situation is aggravated by the fact that the selling agent is marketing the said units in a well know property magazine, posting a full coloured glossy ad. What is more baffling is whether the cost of the advertising would have not made the selling think twice before offering this illegal product. But if the ethics of the agent cannot be found anywhere, what about the publisher? Can we say that they have no obligations whatsoever towards consumers and that minimum checks on what they advertise would be so burdensome that it would not make advertising worthwhile?
Fortunately not more than a handful of developments have been declared illegal and the effects on such declaration are unlikely to be irreversible on owners, but because nobody can predict with certainty that this will be the case we urge real estate agents, publishers and why not developers, to abstain from advertising and selling units in these developments until their legal status is clarified.
