Last week, the Superior Court of Xustiza of Galicia (TSXG) ratified the preventive suspension of the forced sale of three properties in the historic center of Santiago, confirming an order issued by a court in the Galician capital. Decision stops public auctions … promoted by City Hall while pending appeals regarding Raxoi’s refusal of the rehabilitation licenses that the property had requested are resolved. This is the latest move in a process that has remained unresolved for more than two decades.
In this judgment, the Superior Court of Galicia recognizes the need to maintain the brake on the process of selling these properties, knowing that the holding of public auctions could generate “damage difficult or impossible to repair” for the owners, represented by the Compostela lawyer Rebeca Domínguez, whose appeals filed remain unanswered. They are appealing the municipal refusal to grant them the authorization which would allow them to rehabilitate these buildings – located Praza das Penas, 5; San Roque, 23 years old; and Loureiros, 14 years old, all cataloged with level four protection within the framework of the Historic Town of the Galician capital.
In more detail, the TSXG emphasizes that the transfer of ownership to third parties and the possibility for them to carry out their own rehabilitation projects, with the consequent start of work, could give rise to “difficult reversibility situations” – or directly “irreversible” – for the owners if their appeals are ultimately upheld. The court also rejects that a preventive registration in the land register is sufficient to protect against these risks. And, in this sense, the judgment adds that neither the refusal of licenses nor the municipal refusal to suspend the sales procedure represents firm support in the judicial process, therefore the conflict must continue its course in court.
The defense of the community of heirs of the property had argued that the rehabilitation requests had been presented before the forced sale was accepted and that the lack of an effective administrative response left the owners in a defenseless situation; arguments that the trial court had already evaluated and now endorsed by the TSXG.
Despite the brake on auctions, the court specifies that the Town Hall maintains its powers intact to require compliance with conservation duties and security measures or to intervene in a subsidiary manner if necessary. The resolution also imposes the costs of appeal to the Council, up to a limit of 500 euros.
Raxoi rejects allegations
This Monday, for her part, the spokesperson for the local government, Míriam Louzao, announced her council’s rejection of the appeals filed. During a press conference, he declared that the municipal technical reports and the unanimous opinions of the Historical Heritage Advisory Commission were unfavorable regarding the assessment of the “non-compliance” of urban planning and the lack of “minimum definition” required in basic projects such as those presented.
To support this position, he used Galician land law, recalling that the duty to conserve and rehabilitate the properties was declared unfulfilled in February 2024, more than twenty years after the first warnings that had been given to the property, in 2002. And Louzao insisted that “once the declaration has been notified (…), the license application no longer stops the forced sale procedure”.
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