Dubious Association
The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) was a culmination of brutal conflict between an explosive desire for individual freedoms versus repressive state control. The sudden rise of 19th century global capitalism had created an impoverished working class, whose representatives in Spain imagined egalitarian utopias with inspiration from diverse and visionary thinkers such as Kropotkin, Pythagoras, Marx, Buddha, Tolstoy, Epicurus and Bakunin. Anarcho-naturism had emerged as one component of a holistic lifestyle movement, including rural peasant populations in feudal Andalusia as well as industrial workers in Catalonia; one group in Sevilla had aspirations, “to settle in Guinea with theosophy as ideology, vegetarianism as food and Naturism as life”.
Throughout the Franco dictatorship (1939–1975), any form of social, communal nudity was contrary to the political objective of instilling fear and inferiority among all people except him; therefore, naturism had been banned outright (as in Nazi Germany ). Following Franco’s death and the Spanish Constitution of 1978, it became possible for freethinking people in Spain to escape from hierarchically-organised, politically-imposed loneliness, fear and isolation. The door was opened for individual people to emerge from a disillusioned population; to form opinions of their own and to express them; and to create a new civic culture, in which anyone had potential to speak or act in ways that matter.
Asociación Naturista de Andalusia, created in March 1978, became the first regional naturist non-profit association in Spain, within the structure of International Naturist Federation and Federación Naturista Española. The renewed possibility to practice social nudity reflected optimism and trust in a new type of social structure; however, the coinciding tourism construction boom unfortunately attracted a variety of unscrupulous exploits from invading entrepreneur-vultures… Hence, clothes-free existence in the context of the new Spanish tourist industry (for example, at the coastal enclave of Costa Natura, near Estepona in Andalusia) did not necessarily guarrantee the same left-libertarian values of respectful coexistence that had been associated with the early 20th century Spanish naturist movement.
The construction of Costa Natura occurred incrementally between 1979 and 1985 by a French company ‘Dumez’; through a Spanish subsidiary, ‘Naturaleza Costa del Sol’. The architecture and gardens are paradisiacal: 193 terraced apartments (with a patchwork of roof gardens), bring to mind Granada’s ancient cave-dwelling communities at Guadix and Sacromonte, forming a spectacular amphitheatre above a public naturist beach and private central sports arena, with views over the Mediterranean Sea to the coast of Africa.
A ‘Master Deed’ and ‘Community Statutes’ were registered on January 28, 1981; creating Costa Natura as a residential community of homeowners, governed by Law 49/1960, of July 21, on Horizontal Property. Unfortunately, however, those Community Statutes infringed the law of Spain by assigning illegal rights to the original developer to act as a monopoly agent for leases of private homes. Yet, despite being unenforceable in law, said legal drafting errors remain only possible to fix by an expensive, tedious and time-consuming court action; unless unanimous agreement can be obtained amongst all the homeowners to comply with prevailing law (which might seem to be an easy task… even within a liberal, democratic, modern European state!)
Costa Natura, however, appears to be a phenomenon all of its own… amongst its current and recent homeowners, an indistinct mass can be perceived of politically neutral people who don’t appear to care much about anything of importance. Whether exhausted colonialists thinking they’ve found Utopia, inebriated sun-worshipers or confused asylum-seekers from the textile world — they may collectively comprise an easy target for aspiring totalitarian dictators.
Recurrent world events have adequately proven that entrepreneurial, nationalistic dreamers such as Mr Trump or Mr Hitler can be demonstrably wrong; yet, through repetition of lies, a critical mass of un-thinkers might eventually believe their utterances. Any socially distracted cohort of unthinking homeowners at Costa Natura may therefore be exposing itself to the whims of any greedy individual who seeks to exploit them (e.g. by pretending that old legal errors are valid) for their personal benefit.
Even to this day (in November 2022), original legal drafting errors in the Community Statutes of Costa Natura continue to be exploited by powerful individuals for private gain, infringing the individual liberties of numerous other owners and restricting the free market for property leases. A small group of predatory homeowners have recently teamed-up with a Secretary-Administrator corporation described as Ammex etc. (which appears to have provided a negligent service to the neighbouring community) to usurp control of the homeowner community from previous incumbents (who resigned in disgrace), whilst stubbornly refusing to acknowledge their personal conflicts of interest. Moreover, it is suspected (by several homeowners in the community) that a registered non-profit ‘Naturist Association of Costa Natura’ (ANCN) may exist for inappropriate and fraudulent purposes.
An Estepona-based ‘lawyer’ claims to have advised successive Presidents of the community since 2007. In 2013, that lawyer was instrumental in creating ANCN (which restricts its membership to owners of real estate within the community) together with a previous President of the community. The first Director of ANCN wrote to homeowners (on 3rd March 2014) that the ‘association’ was formed “to legalise the various incomes to Costa Natura” and “to reclaim the IVA” (with no apparent justification); whereas, its statutes describe quite different purposes.
In 2016, the community President used funds belonging to homeowners to transform ANCN into a commercial business enterprise for the leasing and sale of real estate, which continues to operate in 2022 with an annual turnover exceeding one million euros. Employees of ANCN now occupy the Reception building of the community, but their actions have no line of accountability to homeowners and they have interfered with private owners’ correspondence.
Some current homeowners are quite concerned that some individuals behind ANCN might be scamming money from some property owners and/or the Spanish state. The Spanish tax agency (Agencia Tributaria) stipulates that tourists using rental accommodation providing a reception service with permanent employees must pay VAT at a rate of 10%. Confusingly, the law has been interpreted to also require intermediaries such as ANCN to pay 21% VAT, despite that 100% of this is reimbursable to ANCN (via the 10% VAT it receives from clients plus an official refund of the remainder from Agencia Tributaria). This might create a potential for confusion and an opportunity for fraudsters to be dishonest with property owners about tax liabilities.
Strangely, ANCN has a model contract which vaguely suggests that “the legal VAT rate” (without specifying to which of several existing legal VAT rates it refers) may either be added to — or subtracted from — , its 26% “commission” from property owners (possibly thereby charging 47% commission to some owners); non-resident homeowners may not realise that they still have a responsibility to ensure correct remittance of VAT (which they collect from ANCN) and personal income tax (which they pay on their income) to Agencia Tributaria. Multiple questions to Directors and Associates of ANCN (seeking clarification of these and related matters) have received no or inadequate response, prompting complaints to Agencia Tributaria.
Some other concerns include the following:
The ‘community lawyer’ is in receipt of approximately 3.000€ per month from homeowners (slightly below a threshold conferring mandatory requirement to share information with the tax authorities), for unexplained reasons.
A public property auction (for worthless community land) in 2019 appears to have been rigged for an amount of 807.000€, in collusion with a representative of the original construction company remnant.
New staff positions have been created without consultation or agreement by the homeowners, who have been invoiced for their salaries.
Explanations have repeatedly been refused for an item in the budget for 25.000€ titled, “Administrative Services”.
Multiple items submitted to agendas of general meetings have been denied inclusion on those agendas, in contravention of law.
Text has been added to the written minutes of general meetings which had not been discussed at those meetings.
In 2022, up to 17.000€ was spent on a new pedestrian beach access gate without any consultation or authorisation from the homeowners, who then were invoiced for it.
The popularity of Costa del Sol with foreign retirees already drives up the cost of living for the working population in one of the poorest regions of Spain. Non-residents who don’t know the language may be vulnerable to scams and must take responsibility to ensure that they understand the implications of owning and/or leasing property in Spain. The concept of nudism attracts a diverse group of people, whilst still offending others. Costa Natura presents a beautiful architectural creation with wonderful potential for a unique type of lifestyle for people of all backgrounds and ages, but must urgently reform its governance. ANCN was created for highly dubious reasons and fails to meet criteria to receive state subsidies as a non-profit association. Any individuals who have benefited from abuses of power or tax evasion must be suitably held to account. Costa Natura community of owners might do well to consider some of the democratic principles which motivated Spanish naturists 100 years ago. There is no place for a non-profit naturist association which exists only for private profit and restricts its membership to the owners of real estate. There is no justification for the recurrent seizure of power by individuals who wish to exploit original legal errors in the community statutes for private gain.
“If, to expose the fraud … to promote universal peace, civilisation, and commerce, and to break the chains of political superstition … if these things be libellous … let the name of libeller be engraved on my tomb.”
Thomas Paine, “To The Addressers On The Late Proclamation”, 1792.
Proposal for a Costa Natura Foundation
As the first naturist community to receive official recognition in modern Spain, and in view of its unique architecture, Costa Natura requires institutional protection in the form of declaration of Asset of Cultural and Historical Interest in accordance with Law 14/2007, de 26 de noviembre, del Patrimonio Histórico de Andalucía. A nearby community with comparable architectural characteristics (Bahía Dorada) already has such recognition, independent from an older watchtower within its bounds.
Furthermore, a Foundation should be established in accordance with Law 10/2005, de 31 de mayo, de Fundaciones de la Comunidad Autónoma de Andalucía in order to protect and preserve Costa Natura and to maintain ongoing future recognition of its cultural value. The legal structure of a Foundation would provide better protection against attempts by individuals to take control or exploit the community for private gain.
In addition, a Foundation could provide legitimate tax advantages for receipt of income derived from common property, if used for the preservation and maintenance of an Asset of Cultural and Historical Interest. Foundations, as legal persons, must pursue the general interest; they have more robust institutional oversight than associations; and have a reputation for stability over time.
The general interest purposes of a Costa Natura Foundation might include, for example:
Promote the enhancement, study, research, dissemination, consolidation, conservation, restoration and integral rehabilitation of Costa Natura.
Propose and develop Well-being and Health improvement programs that benefit humanity in collaboration with the Administration and with the support of private participation.
Propose and develop programs to promote Culture, Arts and Sciences that benefit humanity in collaboration with the Administration and with the support of private participation.