Loulé court has enforced an order made in 2011 that an entire Albufeira apartment bloc must be demolished, and the top floor of another removed, at an estimated cost of €500,000.
Albufeira’s mayor and councillors currently each are paying fines of €25 per day until the work is done.
At issue are two buildings at the Roja Pé urbanisation in Olhos de Água that the municipality, according to the decision by the Administrative and Fiscal Court of Loulé, allowed to be built despite their violating the rules of the local municipal master plan (PDM).
One of the problems is that the apartments are occupied with 66 householders having paid between €100,000 and €150,000 for their homes. The bloc to be demolished contains 16 apartments and the top floor of the other has 12.
The letters sent out by the council this week advising owners that their homes are going to be torn down within 120 days, relate to a court decision taken in 2011, yet the council has only now admitted the extend and seriousness of the predicament and has been forced to come clean with those affected just three months before demolitions begin.
The case dates back to 2002 when the president of the municipality was Desidério Silva, memorable for leaving the council mid-term to take up the presidency of the Algarve Tourism Board and for leaving Albufeira's overdrawn accounts in a mess.
In brief, the builder asked for permission to change the approved plans for 4 apartment blocs and a lovely green space play area.
The asked for amendments were approved by the Desidério Silva council and the designated play area ended up as the location of an additional apartment bloc. The play area was to be built at a new location over the road but was of course never started and the land later was sold off.
esidério Silva's only comment so far has been "I think what I did was all in accordance with the technical advice."
It is not known if the developer paid bribes to any members of the council to get this extraordinary decision passed but there must have been a powerful reason for those in the council to pass amendments that clearly contravened planning regulations.
It looks like Albufeira's ratepayers will be in for a financial setback as no doubt the council will end up paying full price for 28 apartments and the costs of demolition, just as the municipal accounts were starting to look a bit more ship-shape.
Albufeira council sent out notices this week to the residents affected but is not offering compensation, opting instead to offer the rather cynical advice that each owner is entitled to take the council to court for compensation, as 'this is their right under the law.'
"People have their rights, if they want to defend them they need to arrange a lawyer and defend them," said mayor Carlos Silva e Sousa in a less than emouliant comment.
The council's stance seems designed to weed out those who can not afford legal fees or whose life expectancy is not suficiently generous to enter into a prolonged court process that by current speeds will take several years to start, let alone encompass the inevitable obections and appeals by the council's lawyers designed to delay compensation payment.
Still no sensible comment from Desidério Silva whose already poor reputation has just sunk a few more feet below the mud.
For a full report by Natasha Donn at The Resident, see:
http://portugalresident.com/demolition-shock-rocks-albufeira-apartments
For another Desidério Silva planning permission court case, see:
http://www.algarvedailynews.com/news/4643-tourism-boss-in-court-over-illegal-building
