On 9 August 2002, Pratdip Town Council and the Planas del Rey Urban Development Conservation Entity (EUCC) signed an agreement intended to regulate, on a temporary basis, the management of several common areas within the development.
The agreement came only a few months after confirmation that those areas had been registered in the municipality’s name. On 14 March 2002, the EUCC’s lawyer had announced that the common areas were now definitively registered in the name of Pratdip Town Council, following the judicial proceedings initiated in previous years.
The agreement of 9 August nevertheless makes one essential point clear: registered ownership by the Town Council does not amount to the administrative takeover of the urban development works.
An agreement following the 2001 enforcement proceedings
The preamble briefly sets out the background to the situation.
It recalls that the Planes del Rei development, promoted from the 1960s onwards by Francisco Lebasque, had remained incomplete both physically and in relation to the fulfilment of certain planning obligations and transfer requirements.
The sports areas, facilities, roads and common areas had remained registered in the developer’s name, despite his stated intention to transfer them to the Town Council.
Following the court proceedings initiated in 1990 and the 1993 judgment, the EUCC was finally able, thanks to the Falset Court order of 29 October 2001, to continue the formal registration of those assets in the name of Pratdip Town Council.
Registration in the Town Council’s name does not mean formal takeover of the development
The first clause of the agreement is particularly clear.
Pratdip Town Council and the EUCC jointly acknowledge that the Town Council’s registered ownership does not mean that the urban development works have been administratively taken over.
According to the document, the purpose of the registration is to provide legal certainty to the urban development process.
The agreement therefore expressly distinguishes between two concepts that should not be confused: on the one hand, ownership registered in the municipality’s name and, on the other, the administrative takeover of the development.
Registered property 1169 appears explicitly
The agreement also introduces a land-registry reference that becomes particularly important in the later history of Planas del Rey: registered property 1169 in the Falset Land Registry.
The second clause provides that the Town Council authorises the EUCC to occupy, until the development is formally taken over, the land included in registered property 1169.
This reference identifies in legal terms the property covered by the agreement. It will reappear in later documents concerning Planas del Rey and therefore becomes an important element to follow in the chronology.
Permission to occupy, not a usufruct
A few months earlier, the proposal mentioned by the EUCC’s lawyer had envisaged granting the common areas to the entity in usufruct.
The agreement ultimately signed on 9 August 2002 adopts a different legal arrangement: the Town Council authorises the EUCC to occupy the land until the development is formally taken over.
The document therefore does not create a right of usufruct.
This distinction is important in order to understand precisely the legal nature of the right granted to the EUCC under the agreement.
The EUCC remains responsible for maintenance and completion of the works
The permission to occupy the land is granted so that the EUCC can continue to carry out the functions laid down in its statutes.
The agreement expressly refers to:
- the conservation of the areas concerned;
- their maintenance;
- the use of common services;
- the completion of the urban development works.
The third clause confirms that the EUCC undertakes to continue fulfilling its obligations concerning the conservation and maintenance of the urban development works, as well as to carry out the works needed to complete the development.
The agreement therefore regulates a transitional situation: the land is registered in the Town Council’s name, but the EUCC continues to occupy it, maintain it and perform the functions laid down in its statutes until the development is formally taken over.
An agreement intended to provide legal certainty for the common areas
The preamble also explains why the parties wished to regularise the land-registration situation.
For more than thirty years, areas intended for common use had remained registered in the name of a person who was subject to suspension-of-payments proceedings. The agreement refers to the risk that, by some legal means, they could pass into the hands of a private third party protected by the legal effect of the Land Registry.
Registration in the Town Council’s name is therefore presented as a measure intended to strengthen the legal protection of those areas for the benefit of the residents of the development.
An important stage in the chronology of Planas del Rey
The agreement of 9 August 2002 helps clarify the situation at that date.
The areas concerned had been registered in the Town Council’s name, but the administrative takeover of the development had not yet taken place. In the meantime, the EUCC was authorised to occupy the land forming registered property 1169 and remained responsible for its conservation, maintenance and the completion of the urban development works.
This document therefore marks a further stage following the 2001 enforcement proceedings and the registration confirmed in March 2002. Above all, it helps explain the distinction that still existed at that time between municipal ownership, management by the EUCC and the administrative takeover of the development.
Jim – La Tribune de Planas
Translation of the original document
Pratdip, 9 August 2002
URBAN PLANNING AGREEMENT
On the one hand, Mr RENE MIMOUNI, of legal age, residing at 33 Carrer Narcís, Planes del Rei development, holder of ID No. AX15999.
And on the other hand, Mr JOSEP FORTUNY I SABATÉ, of legal age, residing at 7 Avinguda Catalunya, Pratdip.
APPEARING: Mr Mimouni, in the name and on behalf of the URBAN DEVELOPMENT CONSERVATION ENTITY OF THE PLANES DEL REI DEVELOPMENT, and Mr Fortuny, in his capacity as Mayor-President of Pratdip Town Council.
Both parties mutually recognise that they have the necessary legal capacity to enter into this agreement and, by mutual consent,
STATE
I. — That the Planes del Rei development, promoted since the 1960s by Mr FRANCISCO LEBASQUE, remained incomplete both in physical terms and in relation to the fulfilment of urban planning obligations and transfer requirements.
II. — That since the developer applied for suspension of payments in 1968, proceedings No. 444/1968 before the Reus Court, the sports areas, facilities, roads and, in general, the common areas have remained registered in his name, despite the fact that he had expressed, including in writing, his intention to transfer those areas to the Town Council. However, that transfer was not formalised by public deed.
III. — That, in order to remedy the absence of signature of that deed, the urban development entity brought declaratory court proceedings in 1990, case 12/90 before the Court of First Instance in Falset, which ended with a judgment requiring Mr Lebasque and the Creditors’ Committee in the aforementioned suspension-of-payments proceedings to execute a deed transferring the common areas in favour of Pratdip Town Council.
IV. — That, given the impossibility of the persons ordered to do so executing the deed in enforcement of the judgment, the Entity brought enforcement proceedings 195/2001 in respect of judicial titles, in which, pursuant to Article 708 of the Code of Civil Procedure, it obtained a court order allowing the registration, in the name of Pratdip Town Council, of the common areas repeatedly referred to above.
V. — That the Town Council and the Entity wish to place on record that this registration in the municipality’s name has been carried out in the interests of the residents of the development and for reasons of legal certainty.
The purpose is to put an end to the undesirable situation in which areas intended for common use for more than thirty years continued to be registered in the name of a person subject to suspension-of-payments proceedings, with the risk that they might, by some legal title, pass into the private ownership of a third party protected by the public faith of the Land Registry.
VI. — That, in order to regularise the situation of those areas from now until the development is definitively taken over by the Town Council, the parties enter into this agreement, which shall be governed by the following:
AGREEMENTS
FIRST. — Both parties acknowledge that the Town Council’s registered ownership does not mean the administrative takeover of the urban development works, but is intended solely to provide legal certainty to the urban development process, in accordance with section V of this agreement.
SECOND. — The Town Council authorises the Conservation Entity to occupy, until the development is formally taken over, the land included in registered property 1169 of the Falset Land Registry, so that the Entity may fulfil its purpose, in accordance with Article D II of its statutes, namely: conservation, maintenance, use of the common services and completion of the urban development works.
THIRD. — The Entity undertakes to comply with its obligations regarding the conservation and maintenance of the urban development works and to carry out the works necessary to complete the development.
In witness of their agreement, the parties sign this agreement at the place and on the date stated above.
