In the case of Ayala Flores v. Italy the Court held that there had been no violation of the right to respect for private and family life and the home.

The case concerned a demolition order for the unauthorised construction of a house on the island of Procida belonging to the applicant. Her complaint specifically focussed on the issue of whether the authorities had struck a fair balance between her individual right to her home and the public interest in issuing and enforcing the demolition order.

The Court found that the courts had weighed up the competing interests at stake and had taken into account the applicant’s arguments, but had found them to be vague, unsubstantiated and insufficient to outweigh the significant interest in enforcing the demolition. It stressed that the applicant had weakened her position in that balancing exercise as she had continued living in the property in conscious defiance of the law for 15 years, and in the knowledge that it was on an environmentally protected site and an area at risk of seismic activity.

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