- Lee and Georgie Pendleton will lose their apartment in Port d’Andratx in a few weeks
A British couple’s £1.3 million home in Mallorca is to be demolished after the Spanish government deemed it illegal.
Lee and Georgie Pendleton will have to watch diggers demolish their apartment in popular Port d’Andratx before Christmas – and have been told they will not receive any compensation.
This is despite the fact that they bought the apartment 16 years ago, before the demolition order for their building was issued in 2013.
The order is finally being carried out “after years of threats,” the Pendletons said, and they, along with the owners of 11 other properties, will soon see their apartment reduced to rubble.
‘It’s heartbreaking. We haven’t even told our kids yet. “We were not in the country when the court issued the eviction order,” Pendleton said. The telegraph.
“We had to ask our friends to put our things away, otherwise they would have gone in the trash.”
The couple are just the latest victims of an urban planning scandal that has affected dozens of homeowners in Mallorca and has been repeated throughout Spain.
It began in 2005 when Andratx mayor Eugenio Hidalgo issued a series of “illegal” planning applications in exchange for cash incentives.
He was jailed in 2013 after promoter Manuel Zapata admitted paying him tens of thousands of euros for contracts.
Lee and Georgie Pendleton will have to watch diggers demolish their apartment in popular Port d’Andratx before Christmas and have been told they will not receive any compensation.
The demolition order for the Pendleton home was issued in September 2013.
“They have threatened demolition for years and we have been living on eggshells,” Mrs Pendleton said, adding that the saga had kept her up at night.
The delay in demolition is due in part to a compensation claim filed by the owners.
The owners previously attempted to pay Andratx city council €100,000 each to change the title of their building, but the offer was rejected.
Mr Pendleton said: ‘As a non-resident, they will not interact with you. Even if you go to town hall. It’s as if they are blocking your entry into the country. They are very happy for you to come, but then if any problem arises, you will be on your own.
‘How can you do this to people? The government should give us market-level compensation.’
To add insult to injury, there have been claims that once levelled, the seafront plot could become the site for three luxury villas valued at €20m (£16.6m) each.
The owners previously attempted to pay Andratx City Council €100,000 each to change the title of their building, but the offer was rejected.
The couple still have €200,000 in the property and say they only heard from their lender when they contacted them to close their mortgage after the eviction notice was issued.
The couple said they had a tenant in the apartment at the time and had given them two days’ notice, and that utilities were shut off in the building.
Pendleton said that while they expect to suffer losses, the family is trying to salvage “some of this horrible disaster” and still own some of the land.
MailOnline has contacted Andratx town council for comment.