EL SILENCIO ADMINISTRATIVO TRAS EL REAL DECRETO-LEY 8/2011 Y LA CONSIGUIENTE REVISIÓN DE LA ÚLTIMA JURISPRUDENCIA DE LA DIRECCIÓN GENERAL AL RESPECTO.

Abstract

Failure by the authorities to reply to most applications for authorizations related with land planning is, as of Royal Decree-Law 8/2011 of 1 July, equivalent to refusal. Although this development eliminates the uncertainty applicants used to undergo (which led to the Supreme Court's ruling of 29 January 2009 negating the operation of consent through non-reply in the case of contra legem effects), at the same time the rule smiles upon non-compliance by the government with its obligation to take decisions. In adopting this solution, legislators have given up the quest for better-balanced formulae in which refusal through non-reply would be limited to events requiring singular protection and consent through non-reply would be upheld as having effects equivalent to those of an express act of consent, in accordance with the model introduced by the 1999 reform of the Act on Civil Procedure. Furthermore, the establishment of this rule forces us to reconsider the Directorate-General of Registries and Notarial Affairs' doctrine concerning the registration of administrative acts effected via non-reply, which will no longer be possible under the new legislation.