The whole sordid story behind Urbanización Cármenes del Mar is simply a litany of disappointment and frustration on the one hand, and deceit and passing the buck on the other.

It didn’t matter that all the old folk 26 years ago knew full well that this hillside was unstable so it is impossible, in the opinion of many, that the Town Hall and the developer didn’t know it… but licences were issued, money flowed into the municipal coffers and the construction cranes bloomed.

The people who spent their savings on these soon-to-be unstable dwellings didn’t know this, of course and when cracks appeared and rooms slowing became ‘split-level ones,’ whilst the main access lane drooped with slowly widening cracks running along it, alarms bells rang and those responsible ducked.

Law suits followed bringing both hope and disappointment; the developers had gone bankrupt and the Town Hall, whilst wringing its sweating hands in sympathy, basically said that it was somebody else’s fault and they didn’t have the money to stabilise the hillside.

Now it should be stated before we go on, not all of the dwellings within Carmenes del Mar have been affected by this problem and furthermore have never had any signs of instability in their homes or on the street in front of their houses, but they are the lucky ones.

Now, after 26 years of struggle and this long string of lawsuits, the Supreme Court has ordered insurance companies to compensate the first 90 families of this 415-home development with 10-million euros because it upheld one of the appeals made by the residents of the two comunidades, Pueblo and Atarazanas.

It took 16 years for this final court decision to come through.

The compensation money will go towards several repairs: first and foremost, the community pool and the garages. They will also need to fix the pipe network for the water-supply, the sewage system, the pavement, and the storm drains, which are also deteriorated.

However, there are bureaucratic hurdles ahead because owing to the construction companies going bankrupt long ago, residents must now navigate the court execution of the ruling and coordinate with the Town Hall and the Junta de Andalucía in order to get their hands on the funds.

Furthermore, the Supreme Court ruling does not address the builders hiding their civil-liability insurance (suggesting bad faith), and the original insured amounts do not match today’s inflated repair costs.

In the meantime, Comunidad de Propietarios de Atarazanas submitted a geotechnical plan to rebuild their pool on firmer ground over six months ago, but the Town Hall has yet to respond or address the lack of neighbourhood maintenance.

Editorial comment: the main thing is that affected property owners can drive past oversized tropical fruit monuments when they enter Almuñécar, which were, evidently, of a greater priority than Carmenes del Mar where funds and expediency are concerned.

(News: Herradura, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)

Keywords: Supreme Court Favour Carmenes, Carmenes del Mar, Unstable Hillside, Bankrupts, Insurance Companies, Community Pool, Comunidad de Propetarios, Atarazanas, Pueblo, Town Hall, Junta

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