On October 5, 2020, the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court unanimously rejected the appeal for protection filed by Inversiones Panguipulli SpA against the Regional Comptroller of the Rivers (Ruling No. 62. 948/ 2020), for the issuance of Ruling No. 203 dated January 15, 2020, which declared irregular thirteen building permits granted by the Municipal Works Directorate of the Municipality of Panguipulli (“DOM”) to the appellant to build housing in part of the 228 lots resulting from the subdivision of the rural property located in Panguipulli Bay. In the opinion of the Comptroller’s Office, the failure to submit the favorable reports of the Agricultural and Livestock Service (“SAG”) and the Regional Ministerial Secretariat of Housing and Urbanism of the Los Ríos Region (“SEREMI”) for the respective change of land use in view of the development of the “Bahía Panguipulli” housing project, was in breach of the provisions of Article 55 of the General Law on Urbanism and Construction (“LGUC”), in addition to infringing the terms of the D L. N° 3.516, since this norm prohibits the use of subdivided properties for urban or housing purposes.

Although Inversiones Panguipulli SpA maintained that its intention was to prepare and sell the mentioned properties maintaining their condition of rustic, and therefore it was unnecessary to request the change of land use, only for this purpose the building permit granted by the DOM is sufficient, In the opinion of the judges, although the controversy exceeded the precautionary nature of the appeal, it did not prevent the fact that Inversiones Panguipulli SpA did not have the favorable report for change of land use, which given the background, should have been issued in order to comply with the provisions of Article 55 of the LGUC.

In case you require additional information on this matter, you may contact Sven Herlin (sherlin@jdf.cl) and/or Julio Trucco (jtrucco@jdf.cl)