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Tenant Eviction Nightmare

Tenant Eviction Nightmare

Old Nov 12th 2017, 1:28 pm
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Default Tenant Eviction Nightmare

My father and aunt bought an apartment property in calpe 30 years ago but didn't get the Deeds updated (still had the building developer as the registered owner that went bust soon after). They rented it out for a pittance using some letting agent whose office was resident in the block. Tenants came and went but the final tenant (now deceased) agreed with the letting agent to hand the keys to the 'President of the block's son' to become the new tenant in 2008 (without a tenancy lease contract). He started paying our letting agent for several months who then bounced the cheques they sent to my father and aunt (after I chased them for several months). The bounced cheques meant bank charge costs to my father, then the letting agent went into liquidation. Further the exterior of the building block started crumbling off and posed a danger to the public. The President was contacted by the Town Hall to get the repairs done within 6 months for face a lawsuit and massive fines. That if nothing was done quickly, they would takeover the management of the repairs and charge 12000 euros per apartment (total costs of repairs were 150k euros). Anyhow, the President of the block asked each owner to transfer 600 euros into a special bank account so that the repairs could start plus she was also requesting some subsidy from a regional body so that the total costs per apartment would be 5000 euros. She then found out that my father/aunt were not on the deeds and basically told her son (our tenant) that we were not the legal owners and to stop paying rent. So for the first few years we were sending him demand letters for non-payment of rent, him claiming we were not the real owners. We couldn't pay for the strucutural repairs until we were certain that we could become the legal owner of the property and get the deeds sorted. That took several years, lots of money and court cases to sort out but we finally got the Deeds altered and ownership titles updated in 2015. So in all that time the tenant has lived in the flat for over 8 years rent free paying the IBI and Basura , thinking that he would become the owner by default. He wouldn't even pay a penny even after knowing we were the rightful owners since 2015. So we hired a lawyer to evict him while he got free legal aid to hire a state lawyer to fight his case against eviction. Our lawyer progressed the eviction using the incorrect process (en precario as if the tenant had no Title or contract to live on the property). His savvy lawyer claimed that because he made payments to our agent (who also consented to giving him the keys to the property) , while we also sent him demand letters , that this constituted a tenancy agreement. They claimed that we should be evicting the tenant for non-payment of rent and asked the case to be thrown out. They also claimed that my father/aunt hadn't proved to the tenant that we were the legal owners and this is why he stopped paying. Anyhow , to cut this long story short, he won the case on this technicality of wrong eviction process. The judge said he was living there illegally but still adjudicated in his favour and hit us with all the court costs plus payment of his 'free' solicitor's costs . We don't know how much that will be but we are really worried about all this. Now we are having to repeat the whole process again, eviction for non-payment of rent but this tenant and his family seem to know all the intricacies in avoiding eviction and payment by using legal loopholes. Avoiding or claiming non-receipt of the Burofax eviction order, then maybe going to court and using 'enervation' by offsetting the rent debt due by all the monies spent on paying Basura and IBI , plus maybe even producing fake invoices/bills for those structural repairs (that I mentioned earlier in this post). It gets worse , because I have heard there is a 'statute of limitations' that means we can only demand 5 yrs worth of rent , yet he can offset the debt using 8 years of IBI/Basura and other structural repair costs. He might be able to offset the whole debt with fake invoices , etc , stay eviction and win the case plus we will have to pay court costs again . Then I suspect he will claim 'Permanent Tenant' status and then he will be able to stay in the property for another 3 years (providing he pays the rent on time - he cannot use enervation again as an excuse). This is all madness and no wonder landlords won't rent out the flats and why there are millions of empty properties. Further , while all this is happening , he can trash the flat or hand over the keys to squatters, run up sky high utility bills that the landlord will need to pay.

Last edited by DOWNANDOUT; Nov 12th 2017 at 1:33 pm.
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Old Nov 12th 2017, 1:39 pm
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Default Re: Tenant Eviction Nightmare

I would suggest just walking away, all you are doing is throwing good money after bad, and it will take years to sort out given the way Spanish courts work.
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Old Nov 12th 2017, 3:01 pm
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Default Re: Tenant Eviction Nightmare

I think you have to weigh carefully the cost in resolving the matter of the errant tenant against what, ultimately, you might gain from obtaining a saleable title to the property (once it has been brought up to a saleable condition at your expense). Balance what you might stand to profit against your costs in taking the case to court (again). perhaps the tenant might be persuaded to purchase the apartment from you in which case you would be rid of the whole affair.
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Old Nov 12th 2017, 11:48 pm
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Default Re: Tenant Eviction Nightmare

Can't walk away because otherwise the debt will get worse and levied at the owner of the property (even though we have no access to the property). The deeds are now legally in the name of my father/aunt so very worrying. The property is worth about 60k euros so its probably worthwhile suffering the pain that these tenants are causing (verging on the fringes of criminality) but all apparently above board according to the legal profession in Spain. I'm also so peeved off at their immoral actions causing my elderly father so much worry that I feel a great antipathy towards them.
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Old Nov 13th 2017, 6:34 am
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Default Re: Tenant Eviction Nightmare

Originally Posted by DOWNANDOUT
Can't walk away because otherwise the debt will get worse and levied at the owner of the property (even though we have no access to the property). The deeds are now legally in the name of my father/aunt so very worrying. The property is worth about 60k euros so its probably worthwhile suffering the pain that these tenants are causing (verging on the fringes of criminality) but all apparently above board according to the legal profession in Spain. I'm also so peeved off at their immoral actions causing my elderly father so much worry that I feel a great antipathy towards them.
Hi and a warm welcome to the Spanish forum on BE. Myself and Fred James are the moderators for the Spanish forums whilst myself and BEVS moderate Europe. Please read the Site Rules http://britishexpats.com/site-rules/ adhere to them so that the site runs smoothly. Moderators are there to ensure that the rules of BE are maintained. This is so that members gain the information that they are looking for and find their experiences on the forums to be friendly and worthwhile.

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Old Nov 13th 2017, 11:55 am
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Default Re: Tenant Eviction Nightmare

It's worth 60k EUR with clear title.

Can you sell it to the tenants for 30 and walk away.
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Old Nov 13th 2017, 1:16 pm
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Default Re: Tenant Eviction Nightmare

I would also be unhappy at the solicitor you hired, however none of that will help now.
It seems that you need to persevere and go through the court process with a new and hopefully clued up solicitor. Eventually get what is yours and keep or dispose of it as you please. The process in the UK is hard enough on our own turf but in Spain it must be terribly painful I imagine, not to mention the language and different laws to cope with. Good luck.
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Old Nov 13th 2017, 1:53 pm
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Default Re: Tenant Eviction Nightmare

Originally Posted by Millhouse
It's worth 60k EUR with clear title.

Can you sell it to the tenants for 30 and walk away.
Actually,its my brother who is managing all this with the solicitor (this time, someone who is more capable than his colleague who raised the wrong type of eviction order and has now left the company). That solicitor was contacted by the tenants solicitor offering to pay 44k euros for the flat but my brother rejected that offer . Reason being that they have caused my father 8 years of hurt (he only lives on a basic state pension 7k pa) and that extra 150 euros per month he got for rent made a big difference to the quality of his life as he is registered blind. Further they have not paid 300 eurs (150 pm for my aunt , 150 for my father) for 8 years which means the tenant has not paid 24,000 euros. So to offer 44k euros for the flat having pocketed 24k of the rent means they would be buying the flat for 20k euros . And we know they must have lied to the state about not having monies and therefore getting free legal aid , otherwise why would they have offered to pay 44k euros? They must be hiding that monies under their mattress rather than in a bank account . So , do we let them get away with this or do we fight for what is morally right ? The more these type of people get away with fleecing the landlords, the worse it will get and the housing crisis (with millions of empty homes ) will grow . No landlords will rent their homes and the rental market will die. The squatter problems will probably become the norm across Spain because people will have nowhere else to live. The Spanish government and legal profession needs to make the laws better for both tenants and landlords using commonsense and fairness. Not encourage so many loopholes to perpetuate the dispute (from either party) with appeals and more court orders so that only the legal profession can secure a profit. And that's where I think the fault lies , with the legal bods who are generating work and monies for themselves.
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Old Nov 13th 2017, 1:58 pm
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Default Re: Tenant Eviction Nightmare

Originally Posted by jonboy
I would also be unhappy at the solicitor you hired, however none of that will help now.
It seems that you need to persevere and go through the court process with a new and hopefully clued up solicitor. Eventually get what is yours and keep or dispose of it as you please. The process in the UK is hard enough on our own turf but in Spain it must be terribly painful I imagine, not to mention the language and different laws to cope with. Good luck.
Many thanks for your support. We have just raised a new eviction order and hoping that the tenant will see sense and just leave. I suspect he will claim to be legally bankrupt even though he or his relatives have 44k stashed away somewhere. We won't get a penny from him but just want him out.
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Old Nov 13th 2017, 2:31 pm
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Default Re: Tenant Eviction Nightmare

Originally Posted by DOWNANDOUT
Actually,its my brother who is managing all this with the solicitor (this time, someone who is more capable than his colleague who raised the wrong type of eviction order and has now left the company). That solicitor was contacted by the tenants solicitor offering to pay 44k euros for the flat but my brother rejected that offer . Reason being that they have caused my father 8 years of hurt (he only lives on a basic state pension 7k pa) and that extra 150 euros per month he got for rent made a big difference to the quality of his life as he is registered blind. Further they have not paid 300 eurs (150 pm for my aunt , 150 for my father) for 8 years which means the tenant has not paid 24,000 euros. So to offer 44k euros for the flat having pocketed 24k of the rent means they would be buying the flat for 20k euros . And we know they must have lied to the state about not having monies and therefore getting free legal aid , otherwise why would they have offered to pay 44k euros? They must be hiding that monies under their mattress rather than in a bank account . So , do we let them get away with this or do we fight for what is morally right ? The more these type of people get away with fleecing the landlords, the worse it will get and the housing crisis (with millions of empty homes ) will grow . No landlords will rent their homes and the rental market will die. The squatter problems will probably become the norm across Spain because people will have nowhere else to live. The Spanish government and legal profession needs to make the laws better for both tenants and landlords using commonsense and fairness. Not encourage so many loopholes to perpetuate the dispute (from either party) with appeals and more court orders so that only the legal profession can secure a profit. And that's where I think the fault lies , with the legal bods who are generating work and monies for themselves.
Humm, I think I'd still take the offer. What's in the past is in the past, you'll never get that back so it's damage limitation time. Your choices seem to be lock up some money in a place you cannot sell or collect rent from (and is causing you various costs) and ball ache for an indefinite period of time, or cut a deal with the scumbag and walk away. On that basis, 44k seems like a good deal to me.
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Old Nov 13th 2017, 9:05 pm
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Default Re: Tenant Eviction Nightmare

I can see Millhouses' point. It sometimes happens in a "business sort of way" that the tenant offers to buy out the disadvantaged landlord and it is seen by some as almost legitimate.

If you go for this make sure it is all well sown up.

I am surprised you still use the same legal firm to represent you.
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Old Nov 13th 2017, 11:51 pm
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Default Re: Tenant Eviction Nightmare

Originally Posted by jonboy
I can see Millhouses' point. It sometimes happens in a "business sort of way" that the tenant offers to buy out the disadvantaged landlord and it is seen by some as almost legitimate.

If you go for this make sure it is all well sown up.

I am surprised you still use the same legal firm to represent you.
Yes, I was very angry with the firm and asked them to pay the costs (ie. court costs and tenants solicitor costs ). I am suspecting something in the range of 3000 euros but they have said they will not be paying the costas. We cannot risk taking the time to find another solicitor and trekking through all the history of the case again. To be fair , they have given us a discount of 800 euros for the next eviction and there isn't much else that can go wrong , even if we hired another solicitor. All this tenant can do is either leave, pay the outstanding 18000 euros or get forcefully evicted. But I am betting he will try and produce fake invoices about the structural works and ask the judge whether he can offset those costs against the outstanding rent. If he succeeds, the outstanding amount could be a lot less and he might just pay the balance to stay in the flat.
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Old Nov 14th 2017, 9:35 pm
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Default Re: Tenant Eviction Nightmare

So a a discount of 800 euros for the next eviction but have they told you the cost of the eviction, including any taxes?

I would be inclined to see the business through and then secure the flat and spend time there prior to selling it on at decent price for yourselves if possible.

I suppose the relationship with your immediate neighbours would be strained but that all comes within the price. Sod 'em.
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Old Nov 14th 2017, 10:12 pm
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Default Re: Tenant Eviction Nightmare

Sorry your dad is having to deal with this shite Just a thought - you said he was living on the basic state pension. Shouldn't he be eligible for pension credit, especially since he's had no rental income for 8 years?
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Old Nov 15th 2017, 11:10 am
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Default Re: Tenant Eviction Nightmare

Originally Posted by spouse of scouse
Sorry your dad is having to deal with this shite Just a thought - you said he was living on the basic state pension. Shouldn't he be eligible for pension credit, especially since he's had no rental income for 8 years?
No, I've checked using the Pension Credit checker on HMRC site . They seem to use a whole plethora of conditions you must meet before you can apply.
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