The days of slapping down a cortijo, on a piece of land the size of a postage stamp and hoping that nobody would notice, are over... Or if they did, you'd just pay a fine and that's it.

The Junta de Andalucía was busy carrying out inspections in the province during 2024, cordoning off eleven dwellings and land in Las Gabias, the majority of which were ‘weekend cortijos.’

The owners of these illegal constructions have shown their “willingness to cooperate with the Junta and one of them has gone ahead and demolished the dwelling before his/her case had gone through the administrative process which would have ended in demolition, anyway.

These properties are all in an area within the municipality of Las Gabias known as Las Viñas and with several of them sharing boundaries.

The land on which they are built is categorised as rústico (farmland) and the property owners had built a common access lane for the nucleus of houses. They were mostly intended for weekend us and some even had removable, surface swimming pools.

The owners were summoned to their properties to be present when the land was cordonned off. Entering the property is considered a serious infringement that carries a fine of between 30,000 and 120,000 euros.

During last year the Junta de Andalucia placed seals on 497 properties around the whole region after carrying out 2,149 inspections.

(News: Las Gabias, Vega, Granada, Andalucia)

Keywords: Illegal Cortijos, Sealed Off, Demolition, Fines, Surface Swimming Pools

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