A man from Albolote, Granada decided that it was better to demolish than to go to prison. Francisco Rodríguez has spent all his savings on having a modest cortijo and a vegetable plot, but it wasn’t to be.

He, along with nine others, had bought a 1,000 sq/m plot from a larger one measuring 10,000 sq/m. he built a single storey, flat roof apero-cum-cortijo, with an open terrace included within that meterage. Around him many other, much bigger and equally illegal constructions; veritable mansions, he complains, but his was the one that the autonomic police came across.

In that area, the same as down on the coast, the Town Hall was working on making all these illegal rural dwellings habitable, if not 100% legal; i.e., you pay your taxes but you won’t get a house deed. Although he received an order to demolish it, he was hanging on and hanging on to see if he could save his small cortijo through these administrative measures, but it wasn’t to be. The Guardia Civil turned up with a court order giving him just 15 days to demolish it or go to prison and pay a 3,000-euro fine.

Francisco watched as the fruit of his savings was wiped out in just over an hour, leaving him to contemplate bitterly the larger dwellings left untouched. Francisco, who was a builder, has worked as a waiter since the construction sector bit the dust.

(News: Albolote, Granada, Andalucia)