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The judiciary warns that the national government does not have the authority to impose housing decisions on communities

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With all the talk about the new law approved today, it turns out that this government overlooks the mandatory report from the General Council of the Judiciary, which highlights the autonomous competences in the housing sector.

A report highlights the competences of the autonomous communities regarding the Right to Housing Law. Despite more than a year having passed, the Right to Housing Law arrives at the Congress with a mandatory, non-consultative report from the General Council of the Judiciary. This document was approved by the body on January 27, 2022, after a first report drafted by the rapporteur and former socialist deputy, Álvaro Cuesta, was rejected.

After failing to reach an agreement, with 15 votes against and 6 in favor, the CGPJ delegates the competence of studying the draft of the Right to Housing Law, and a few days later, the result of this vote was 15 votes in favor and 6 against, according to sources from the Council.

This report, consisting of 63 pages, evaluates the considerations and recommendations. The text emphasizes the importance of respecting the competences of the autonomous communities and warns about the consequences of administrative interventionism and legislative overlap of the State over the communities, given that many of them already have an established regulatory framework. It also highlights redundant provisions and warns about the risk of emptying autonomous competences in favor of an equality that may be affected by a supposed harmonizing function.

In the General Considerations, it is emphasized that “state intervention cannot exhaust the regulation of the matter, in this case, housing, nor the right in article 47 of the Spanish Constitution, but it must be the minimum necessary to achieve the objective that legitimizes its use and so that the autonomous communities can deploy their own policies in the matter.”

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT HERE

“Housing is a matter of autonomous competence” The report from the General Council of the Judiciary on the Right to Housing Law emphasizes that the regulation of this matter must have a restrictive interpretation so as not to limit legitimate autonomous competences (SSTC 29/1986, FJ 4, and 141/2014, FJ 5). In the conclusions of the report, it is emphasized that “housing is a matter of autonomous competence, according to article 148.1.3 of the Constitution and the autonomy statutes. Each autonomous community is responsible for regulating and developing public policies to guarantee the right to housing established in article 47 of the Constitution, in accordance with the majority political orientation in each of them and without prejudice to the competences of the State in this matter.”

Even in cases of expropriation, the report from the CGPJ is based on the ruling of the Constitutional Court 37/1987 of March 26, FJ 6, which states that it is up to the autonomous communities, and not the State, to legally define the cases in which the expropriatory instrument can be used, always respecting the general legislation of the State that guarantees the property rights of private subjects.

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Israel Huertas Salazar

Inmobiliaria en Torrox. Ofrezco un trato personalizado y una contrastada experiencia como intermediario en la compraventa de inmuebles de todo tipo, oportunidades y grandes inversiones inmobiliarias, en diversas ubicaciones, tanto en Torrox, como Nerja, Frigiliana, Torre del Mar… y gran parte del territorio andaluz. Como broker inmobiliario, colaboro en red con todas las inmobiliarias y empresas promotoras y puedo conseguir la propiedad de su interés.