Tomorrow, November 17, 2022: a police patrol is approaching a portal of the street Pintor del Casco Viejo de Vitoria-Gasteiz for inspection. A neighbour calls on the town hall to report that illegal works are allegedly being carried out in a house. In the report of the Municipal Guard that received ARGIA, two of the workers “when they see the patrol they have rushed to the house leaving the waste on the portal”. The agents go up to the third floor housing and see the work: “Comprehensive housing reform is underway. The wall of the facade that gives the interior patio has been demolished.”

ARGIA has spoken to three neighbours who have lived with distrust in recent months with their houses. One of them is the one who, after talking to others, called the city council. In addition to the municipal agents, a municipal architect and a firefighter approached the portal. Based on the report of the visit by the municipal architect, the Department of Territorial and Climatic Action of the City Council opened the file four days later, on 21 November. Not the dossier, because the dossiers are two in plural.

In fact, when analyzing the works on the third floor, the architect observed that on the second floor of the same portal similar works had been carried out earlier from the house of the neighbors (“a large span that occupies almost the whole facade has been opened. Through the crystals you see works of reform that probably extend to the whole apartment”). The architect's suspicion was correct and these works were carried out six months before the third floor, as shown by a photograph of May 27, 2022, taken by the neighbors: in the photo the whole facade that gives to the interior patio and in the works the whole interior of the house, which according to the neighbors were prolonged for several weeks.

Paralysis of “clandestine” works

“The works that are being carried out are clandestine” (according to the Land and Urbanism Law of 2006), indicate both dossiers in relation to the works of the second and third floors respectively. As a result, the City Council ordered the owner to “immediately stop the works being carried out without a license.” It granted a period of one month for the legalization of each work, upon application for a licence.

Owner of all the floors of the portal, four houses spread over four floors, Luxury Rental Apartments S.L. company. One of the founders and owners of the company is Gustavo Antépara Benito, “the only administrator” from 2007 to July 1, 2022, under the chairmanship of President since June 30, 2022. In November 2022, according to the neighbors, a direct inspection of the works of the Pintor Street has been carried out on several occasions. Antépara is a member of the Management Board of the Public Society of the Ensanche 21 which takes the main urban planning decisions. Finally, the politician and businessman of the PP, together with Pilar Perosanza, is the main driver of the turistification of the homes of the Casco Viejo, through the Arabatur association, which works as a lobby (June 2021 Who is behind the tourist housing lobby of Vitoria? as explained in the research report). Perosanz is President of Arabatur and since 1 July 2022 is the "single administrator" of Luxury instead of Antépa.

ARGIA has tried to contact Antépa to gather her opinion on the information of this report, but has not succeeded. After calling the mobile phone number that Luxury offers on its website and asking to speak with the company president, the person who took the phone has refused to be president of Antéa, but ARGIA has obtained the annual accounts of Luxury, where you can read: “In June 2022 the Ordinary General Assembly of Society met (...) The following agreements were unanimously adopted: (a) Appointment of Gustavo Antéa Benito as president and Pilar Perosanz Lozano as secretary”. The certificate is signed by Perosanz. By telephone asking the other person if he does not contact Antépa to speak to ARGIA, on behalf of Luxury, refuses to invite. Moreover, he did not answer Antépa by writing directly on social media.

The files against Luxury are signed by the delegated councilwoman of Action for the Territory and the Climate, the jeltzale Ana Oregon, second deputy mayor of the city council. Oregon sits with Antépa on the board of Ensanche 21 to guide the urbanism of the city: Representing Antépara PP, Oregon as president.

The way of performing the works in the dwellings of the street Pintor is not an isolated case. Luxury has a property in Correría Street and the behavior repeats: On October 13, 2022, the Municipal Guard detected unauthorized comprehensive reform works. On November 4, the City opened a file ordering the cessation of “clandestine” works and granting it a period of one month for their legalization, as was done with those of the street Pintor.

New fraud in legalisation

Since then Luxury has taken steps to legalize the works, but has continued to hide the nature and importance of them. Regarding the works of the third floor of Pintore Street, Luxury presented on 24 November in the City Hall the Responsible Declaration of minor works (MEA), ensuring, among other things, that the works did not affect the facade, which is an obvious lie as shown by the photographs of the neighbors. But a SAM does not authorize the demolition of the interior walls of a dwelling, nor the increase in the width of the windows of the façade (already built): the City Hall rejected the SAM and asked Luxury to submit an urban license that requires a project signed by an architect. Luxury presented the project on 7 February. Regarding the works on the second floor of the same portal, according to the information obtained by ARGIA, Luxury has not taken any step to legalize the works within a month established by the city council.

Luxury behaves similarly in diffuser street. On November 22 she presented a SAM to legalize the works, but it was rejected by the City Hall. He then got the license, but with lies: On January 30, 2023 the city council performs an inspection on the housing: “It is noted that more works are being carried out than those contained in the licence (...) These activities are not covered by the budget submitted.” The report also notes that the works have caused damage to the low housing and stairs of the portal. Therefore: “This report is forwarded to the Urban Discipline Unit for the necessary actions.”

Illegal tourist apartments

Luxury on your website luxuryvitoria.com announces a tourist house in Correría street, without specifying numbers, and seeing that in the records it has no other property, it can be concluded that the intention of the company is to exploit that housing in the future as a tourist apartment. Currently there is no active link of this property on the web. On the contrary, the apartments of Pintore Street have long been rented as tourist apartments.

Vitoria-Gasteiz has not approved the current regulation of tourist homes. The current General Planning Plan (P.G.O.U.) data from 2003 and expressly prohibits tourist housing. But due to the political and legal developments in the field – long explanation and which are outside the scope of this report – the City Council of Vitoria-Gasteiz and the Basque Government have denied and approved several licences since 2016. In any case, both the Department of Tourism of the Basque Government and the Construction Service of the City Hall have confirmed to ARGIA that for a tourist housing to be legal it is essential that the housing be discharged in the Registry of companies and tourist establishments of the Basque Government.

On the Luxury website of Vitoria four “tourist apartments” are announced in the streets Cutlery, Arkupe, Zerkabarren and San Prudencio. These apartments are released from the Government register. Another three are announced, but under the name “apartment for seasons”, without the word “touristic”: One on San Antonio Street and two on Painter Street. By limiting the investigation to the Casco Viejo, the houses of the street Pintor are not registered in the Government register (and the portal does not have the compulsory VT plate installed), but are rented as tourist homes. Plus, two no, three really are the apartments offered on the Painter portal. The tests are numerous:

- On the tourist rental websites Gites, Vacationrenter and Booking, under the slogan “Luxury Pintoreria Vitoria” three apartments are announced when writing this report.

- After reading the reviews that users have deposited on the booking website, you can know that tourists have rented on the street Pintor nº 1. 2nd and 4th floors. The last comment is 5 February 2023 and the first is 26 June 2021.

- In early February ARGIA asked Luxury for a weekend for 6-8 people and offered him the apartments of Pintor Street by the person in charge of housing management of the company.

- On October 22, 2022 a citizen called the Municipal Police from Pintore 72 and the assistant patrol collected the reason as follows: “The plaintiff is a user of a tourist apartment and calls a locksmith because he cannot open the door and has things inside.”

- The neighbors of the area assure ARGIA that it is usual to see tourists at the entrance and exit of the portal, for the last time in the new Holy Week.

Besides hiding, the company Luxury has lied directly to the city council about the tourist use of the homes of Pintore Street. In the memory of the project of “reform” of the third floor, registered on 7 February, it can be read in the section “use of the building” that refers to all the houses of the portal: “The typical use of the building is housing, with a ground floor space. It doesn’t change.” It therefore denies tourist use.

Fraud of the public treasury?

Luxury would save thousands of euros by performing the works of the street Painter and Correría in a “clandestine” way, according to an architect to ARGIA. On the one hand, Luxury must present projects signed by an architect (therefore paid) for the size of the works. On the other hand, the city council has to pay 5.1% of the cost of the work, that is, Luxury de Antépara has tried to deceive the public treasury. It remains to be seen how the account ends with dossiers and penalties.

As for the illegal exploitation of housing for tourism, if Luxury had not declared the income he has had during these years renting the houses of the street Pintor, we would again be faced with fraud against the public purse.

In play the turistification of the Casco Viejo

The tourist apartment area of the Casco Viejo de Vitoria-Gasteiz is currently unregulated. Like the rest of the city, the Old Town has its own urban regulations differentiated through the Special Plan for Integral Rehabilitation (PERI) of the Old Town. In February 2020, the municipal government provisionally approved the thirteenth modification of the PERI. It determines that there can only be one tourist apartment per portal, which must necessarily be located on the first floor. Three months, in May, the Arabatur association, which promotes the turistification of the Casco Viejo, argued to the regulations that demanded that all the housing in the neighborhood be destined for tourist use or, if not accepted, that full portals can be tourist used if all the homeowners so wish. The allegation fully coincides with the interests of Luxury, which purchased the four homes of the Pintor Street portal in 2018, and is not a matter of chance: The relationship between Arabatur and Luxury and Antéa and Perosanz is old, direct and close.

The municipal government responded to the claim in July 2020 and accepted the second option, that of tourist full portals. This allowed Antépa to move the houses of the portal of the Pintor Street. But the neighbors and the associations of the neighborhood were those who then submitted allegations: in the 136 allegations they gathered, they asked for the ban to be maintained. After two and a half years, the City Council has not yet taken any decision.

Arabatur works as a lobby, as well as presenting allegations, meeting with municipal political parties, among others. The main key, in any case, is in the City Hall: Would it be reasonable for the City Council to change the rules on the basis of a party based on the private interests of some people sitting in Ensanche 21 and engaged in darkness, performing “clandestine” works, deceiving the City Hall and the public treasury and illegally exploiting tourist weights?