The primacy of the restoration of urban planning legality
Spanish Supreme Court interprets statute governing guarantees in demolition of illegally constructed buildings.
The Spanish Supreme Court has upheld an interlocutory decision of the High Court of Cantabria referring to the enforcement of a prior court decision according to which some buildings that violated the urban planning legality had to be demolished. In its decision, the Supreme Court interprets a highly controverted article: section 108.3 of the Judicial Review Proceedings Act (LJCA). This provision relates to certain economic guarantees in case of demolition of illegally constructed buildings. It is important to mention that similar provisions in some regional statutes had been declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court.
In this case, the Supreme Court concludes that article 108.3 LJCA certainly requires some kind of guarantees to respond for compensations, which might be granted to bona fide third parties in relation to demolition of illegally constructed buildings. However, this provision does not require autonomous proceedings to be open in order to quantify the aforementioned compensations. It is enough to constitute a deposit within the main proceedings, based on an estimation of the possible compensations to be paid.
The concrete recognition and amount of these compensations will be granted, if that is the case, in subsequent proceedings. Additionally, these proceedings can only be brought once the demolition has actually taken place.