Update on "illegal letting" asociación (ALOTCA) following committee meeting yest

[aspasia]

There was a committee meeting of the founding members of ALOTCA yesterday, and I can report the following points.

As I've previously posted, the first appeal of the fines resulted in a €3,000 reduction; the second appeal received a 15 page letter essentially saying that all argument was irrelevant and pointless, and that the problems resulting from Turismo's actions were neither their fault nor responsibility. Now, a third appeal to complete the first stage of appeals has been presented, this time to the President of the Canarian Government, Paulino Rivero, himself. A meeting is also being sought with the President to press the points of this appeal in person. Evidently depending on the President's response to this third appeal, any next stage will involve appeal to the Courts.

I will update on the appeal to, and meeting with, the President as soon as I have the information, but unless he gives a positive response, then those with fines will need to decide if they wish to carry on with legal action to the Courts stage. If they do, they will need to contact their lawyer to give Power of Attorney if they have not already done so. There will be new fees payable to the lawyers at this point, and at present it is impossible to say what those fees will be. Negotiations are already underway with a Procurador (the equivalent of a barrister required for procedures over a certain value) with a view to forming a class action. I'll update on this too as soon as I have information.

Regardless of the above, some of the earliest appeals have now expired, the process having exceeded the six months within which they had to be concluded. Some of those with fines have received letters to this effect. The lawyers are seeking certificates of expiry for other fines of the same batch where letters have not been received. They stress, however, that Turismo has confirmed the Government's intention to check up on those who have received a now expired fine to see if they are continuing to advertise. If they are, then they will be fined again and a second fine will be at the higher level of around €30,000. The expiry of the first fine procedure does not eradicate it, but just means it has to be archived. To be clear: anyone in this batch with either a letter or certificate of expiry will not have to pay the fine. The fine stays on record, however, so that a second fine will be of the higher amount.

There is confusion, it appears, at Cabildo level regarding complexes defined as "dormant touristic". A recent meeting resulted in clarity in that sense at least, if no other. Further meetings will shortly take place to determine specifically whether such complexes require 50+1% or 100% community agreement to revert to touristic status.

With regard to the petition, it is now clear that when we are ready to launch it, those who may sign are specifically Canarian "residents". This restriction applies to Spanish as well as other EU nationals. This is "resident" in the wider sense, so not fiscally resident, but those with both a Certificado de Registro and on the padron, i.e. either with or able to acquire a Certificado de Empadronamiento.

With regard to the asociación itself, anyone can join regardless of their status in the Canaries, merely needing to provide the information requested on THIS form – it's the same as given in a previous post (you'll need to go to my site HERE to see the link). Please just download, scan and email back to me (to help@janetanscombe.com). The "ID" requested can be just a passport number (I've put links in the Links and Laws page to the legislation allowing anyone to join), though please indicate that the number is a British passport number if that is the ID you're providing.

[Nova]

Thanks for the update Janet   Doubtless there will be some with an expired fine who are stupid enough to continue advertising, thinking they have "got away with it" 

As we've established that your @janetanscombe.com is a catch all, you know that you could give a different email for this, such as alotca@janetanscombe.com or form@janetanscombe.com and set up a filter on your gmail so that all those replies automatically hit a designated folder on receipt?  I'm just thinking that would look more "the business" as well as keeping your inbox tidy   

[aspasia]

It's a very good idea .... but I chose the "help@" because it's memorable, or I hope it is, and people will know they can use it for anything. And I've found that the fewer methods of communication they get the more they can cope with them ..... 

I'm always on top of my emails anyway, and archive everything the minute it's dealt with (sometimes I remember to put them under labels ... ) 

With these forms, they'll be attachments to the email, so the main thing is not for email as such, but to download the form and save in a folder on my hard drive. Once I have a good batch, José'll get the lot to print out. 

You're right about them carrying on if the first fine is archived ... did I stress enough, i.e. is it totally obvious, that they intend actively to check up and issue a second fine to any who are carrying on?