I’ve just had a wonderful trip back to the UK, and since Iberia have direct flights from San Jose to Madrid, I decided to hop down to Marbella and check out our apartment on the Costa Riviera.

When we moved to Costa Rica, we kept the ‘holiday pad’ as our bolt-hole in case life ever went pear-shaped and we wanted to return to Europe. When we bought, our development looked out on the golf course, had unobstructed views in all directions and was backed by open moorland where we would meet a lovely old Spanish shepherd tending his sheep and goats.

Though we knew two blocks were to be built behind ours, and more on the side of the golf course, we had no inkling of the madness that would descend on the Costa.

In a nutshell, there was a huge boom in building development in the mid-90s and at one point, we could sit on our balcony and count 60 huge cranes on building sites!

Some developments were attractive with spacious balconies, land-scaped gardens, swimming pools and good facilities. Sadly, many were not; we watched houses being squashed into small plots and block upon block of apartments rising with no gardens, no outlook and no facilities.

We called it Legoland and wondered how these developments had all been approved. With a changing economic landscape in Europe, it was obvious half these properties would never sell.

Our moorland was bulldozed to create two new golf courses, when it was common knowledge that the 40 or so on this stretch of the Costa were functioning well below capacity – and worse still, drawing water for golf courses was depriving endless small communities of their supply.

Readers of WeLoveCostaRica will know there’s been the odd scandal here about illegal building developments and corrupt officials. Often coverage implies its ‘par for the course’ in a developing nation.

Oh yea, so what is Spain’s excuse – we’re talking about Europe’s 4th largest economy and sadly, a nation going down the pan on the back of pipe-dreams and greed.

Spain has a highly evolved political structure; Regions and Town halls are autonomous and with the majority of municipal income coming from building licences, corruption did become par for the course.

The scale of the wheeling and dealing is unimaginable – I was staggered to discover our region of Andalucia has a whopping 30.000 illegal developments, and our local municipality of Mijas has 3.000.

That’s not single homes – we’re talking about developments like ours with over 60 apartments!

Before we left UK, tragic stories were hitting the headlines about Brits who had bought their dream homes in Spain and were being told it was illegal and had to be demolished.

I can almost hear readers saying ‘well, they should have done their due diligence’. Ah, were it that easy – and here’s why I’m telling this story, its only in the last year that we have discovered our development is one of those illegal 3.000 in Mijas – rather a nasty surprise!

John had done everything by the book and we had not used a lawyer recommended by the developer. It’s a complex story but basically, it appears the developer’s Plan 1 was rejected, his Plan 2 was approved but he proceeded to build Plan 1.

At the time we bought (four months before completion), our lawyers were technically correct in establishing the building was legal.

All this might have come to light earlier had we not been duped by an apparent ‘goodness’ that now seems pure folly. Spanish law requires all shared developments to establish a ‘Community of Owners’, directed by a Junta Directiva (Board) of owners and supported by a properly qualified administrator.

At our first community meeting, the developer – by this time the ‘owner’ of a penthouse in the development – offered to be the Junta President, citing his unrivalled knowledge of everything to do with the building and relevant Spanish law.

What seemed an eminently sensible arrangement was voted through … and for years to follow, we were told the ‘First Occupational Licence’ (the final legal process of an approved development) was on its way; was only being delayed by an inefficient municipality; we had nothing to worry about, everything was kosher.

Fast forward – a new President took over, a new administrator was appointed and a whole host of worms have come crawling out the woodwork; the Community of Owners is now suing the developer.

Because of the scale of illegal development, the Spanish legal system just couldn’t cope with unravelling and processing all the claims.

Compromise has been reached – approvals are now being granted if the development is deemed safe and is being lived in, we’re optimistic we’ll have that ‘OK status’ soon.

I talked to other owners while there, all of whom were equally bemused and just a little embarrassed we hadn’t pushed the issue years ago. Oh for the wisdom of hindsight.

And the final punch – our developer has bought land and intends developing in Costa Rica. Obviously I can’t go into the details but there’s one very clear lesson here, allowing a developer to become President of a community of owners is probably not a good idea.

Spain’s wider lesson is so obvious; if locals and interested observers think something stinks, it probably does?

Spain is a beautiful country; it was great to visit and the Costa was as wonderful as ever, though I couldn’t shake off a sadness for all the people affected by its economic collapse.

UK has its troubles too but visiting immediately after the Jubilee celebrations and in the run-up to the Olympics, spirits were high.

Landing in Scotland with driving rain, howling winds and 9 degrees cool was a shock to the system!

Thankfully the sun shone for a drive to my old haunts in the Mull of Kintyre – God’s land, so beautiful. With the patriotic batteries restored, its so nice to be back in the warmth of Costa Rica!

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You can see more about John and Sheelagh’s very affordable B&B outside San Isidro here and photographs and prices here and you can also see a free online video interview with John & Sheelagh Richards here.

If you have a serious interest in buying a home, a farm or land that’s for sale in the San Isidro area, please contact our Recommended Costa Rica Realtors: Daveed Hollander, James Drews and John Wieland, by using the simple form below: