The March plenary session of the Montcada i Reixac City Council has approved a crucial proposal to initiate the reversion of the old market stalls located at passeig de Rocamora, 25. This space, disused for years, will return to municipal ownership thanks to an agreement with the current titleholders. The initiative aims to regularize a situation that has been entrenched for over a decade and open new possibilities for the use of the space.
The municipal proposal establishes that the reversion will be carried out by mutual agreement with the registered titleholders, with the aim of avoiding future legal disputes. Once formalized, the agreement will be elevated to a public deed. The document stipulates that the stalls will be handed over to the City Council free of charges and occupants. Economically, the file values the property at 1,026,052.40 euros and sets a global payment of one million euros to the titleholders before September 30, 2026.
“"The City Council is not committing expenditure without coverage, but rather approving an agreement with suspended effectiveness that will be deployed once the corresponding budget modification has been processed and re-audited."
The mayor of Montcada i Reixac, Bartolo Egea, clarified during the plenary session that the payment of this amount is subject to the prior existence of adequate and sufficient credit. Currently, there is no specific budgetary allocation for this operation, as the agreement with the stallholders was formalized after the approval of the council's accounts. This circumstance led to a discrepancy from the municipal auditing body, which was resolved in an extraordinary and urgent plenary session prior to the ordinary session.
Egea argued that suspending the payment until the necessary credit is obtained before the due date respects the principle of budgetary legality and does not violate regulations. The mayor expressed confidence that the necessary budget item will be secured before September.
The history of this facility dates back to 1971, when the City Council granted the construction and exploitation of the market to a company on the condition that ownership would revert to the municipality a decade later. The situation became legally complicated when the City Council did not publicly register the facility, and it was discovered that the concessionaire company had sold the stalls without being legitimately entitled to do so. In 1989, this issue was regularized with a public deed that ratified the sales, but with two resolutory conditions in favor of the council: maintaining market use and preserving the space in proper condition.
According to the file, the market has been closed since 2010, and the owners have not carried out the necessary maintenance actions or maintained commercial activity since then. This non-compliance is the legal basis that now allows the council to initiate the resolutory action and recover full ownership of the stalls.
