- Lee and Georgie Pendleton will lose their apartment in Port d’Andratx in weeks
A British couple’s £1.3million home in Majorca is set to be demolished after it was deemed to be illegal by the Spanish government.
Lee and Georgie Pendleton will have to watch diggers tear down their apartment in the popular Port d’Andratx before Christmas, and have been told they will not receive any compensation.
This is despite the fact they bought the flat 16 years ago – before the demolition order for their building was issued in 2013.
The order is finally being executed ‘after years of threats’, the Pendletons said, and they along with the owners of 11 other properties will soon see their flat reduced to rubble.
‘It’s heartbreaking. We haven’t even told our children yet. We weren’t in the country when the court issued the eviction notice,’ Mr Pendleton told The Telegraph.
‘We had to ask our friends to save our stuff otherwise it would have gone in the skip.’
The couple are just the latest victims of a planning scandal which has impacted scores of homeowners in Majorca and been repeated around Spain.
It began in 2005 when Andratx Mayor Eugenio Hidalgo issued a number of ‘illegal’ planning applications in return for cash incentives.
He was jailed in 2013 after developer Manuel Zapata admitted paying him tens of thousands of euros for contracts.
Lee and Georgie Pendleton will have to watch diggers tear down their apartment in the popular Port d’Andratx before Christmas, and have been told they will not receive any compensation
The demolition order for the Pendleton’s home was issued in September 2013.
‘They’ve threatened demolition for years, and we’ve been living on egg shells,’ Mrs Pendleton said, adding that the saga had kept her awake at night.
The demolition’s delay is in part due to an appeal launched by the homeowners for compensation.
The homeowners previously tried to pay Andratx town hall €100,000 each to change the title of their building, but the offer was rejected.
Mr Pendleton said: ‘As a non-resident, they won’t interact with you. Even if you go to the town hall. It’s like you’re being blocked out of the country. They’re very happy for you to come in, but then you’re on your own if any issues arise.
‘How can you do this to people? The government should be issuing us compensation at market rate level.’
To add insult to injury, there have been claims that once levelled, the sea-facing plot could become the site of three luxury villas worth €20m (£16.6m) each.
The homeowners previously tried to pay Andratx town hall €100,000 each to change the title of their building, but the offer was rejected
The couple still have a €200,000 on the property and say that 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 flat at the time and had been given two days’ notice, with the utilities cut off to the building.
Mr Pendleton said that while they expect to make losses, the family are trying to salvage ‘something from this horrific mess,’ and still own a portion of the land.
MailOnline has contacted Andratx town hall for comment.