More than 500 home owners on the hillside urbanisation Monte Pego are being asked to pay 300,000 euros in uncollected taxes that have accrued over the last few years. The exact amount owing has this week been revealed as 315,000 euros due to Pego town hall in respect of IBI (rates) and rubbish collection charges. Of the six hundred properties on the popular urbanisation, many of which are British owned, two hundred allegedly have no ‘cédula de habitabilidad’ (habitation certificate) which means they have fallen outside the normal IBI rates collection procedure. Such certificates should be issued as a matter of course on completion of any new dwelling. A further 291 houses have not paid their rubbish charges for several years and the council’s income has suffered as a result of these shortfalls. Collection of the outstanding rubbish charges has been passed to the SUMA agency, which in the case of both rubbish and general rates, will only be able to claim for the past five years outstanding as the law does not permit arrears for a longer period to be demanded. This despite the fact that some of the houses have been there for more than ten years without paying tax. The situation is further complicated by the fact that some of the properties owe only two years in back taxes whilst others are in arrears for the full ten years. It is possible that some sort of estimate will be made to avoid time consuming calculations having to be made. The urbanisation consists entirely of luxury homes with swimming pools that sprawl over the mountain that abuts the motorway between Dénia and Oliva. These houses are inhabited year-round by as many as 40 per cent of property owners, the remainder are sought-after holiday homes. A resident of the urbanisation said that many of the problems with the development stemmed from the fact that it was spread over the jurisdiction of three town councils: Pego, Dénia and Rafol. No agreement has been reached between these as to the status of the urbanisation resulting in anomalies in paperwork that have in turn led to the arrears. Last week Pego council was landed with a possible bill totalling more than one million euros following the jail term and fine handed out to its former mayor Carlos Pascual. Lawyers acting for ex-mayor Pascual are in the process of appealing against the sentence handed out by the court in Alicante by obtaining leave to appeal to the superior court in Valencia. If this fails the solicitors will ask that the judgement be declared null.
