Hi,
We have a small apartment in Benidorm.Our 85 year old neighbor, who has been ill in the UK has had her apartment broken into and people are using her apartment. They have changed the locks
She was unaware & still paying all her community charges & bills.

Her son was informed of this & decided to take back ownership. He drilled out the locks & entered.
The occupants tried to fight him off & the police were called

Unfortunately, as the occupants had been in there more than 48 hrs, the Police arrested him!

He has been released without charge but is now having difficulty removing these people

He has been advised to pay the occupants to leave, as this is cheaper & quicker than going through the courts. It is apparently a big scam in Spain right now

How can this be allowed by the Spanish Police & courts?

Has anyone had experience of this?

Thanks,
Nick

It is an unfortunate situation that occurs. To remove them legally means getting a course order - then the police can enforce it. The problem is that they can't process these things so ( as in UK) you can be waiting for up to 2 years. So yes, many folk try and pay the Okupas to leave. You need a Spanish person in the know probably to help because as a foreigner they will imagine you can pay lots. Usually it is a few hundred - so worth trying as the cost of bills etc will exceed anything they will go for. Other alternative is a company who will basically get them out by a process of negotiation and threat! However, the company will charge you a lot and are probably just as bad as the squatters

Why is it scam? Because you dont like current law? Tough.
Same "scam" existed in UK until recently, when squatting become criminal offense.
As 1sexsmith posted, its going to be very difficult to remove them. If they have underage child, impossible to remove.

So ...what is the current law? It certainly isn't that occupation is legal... solely that the authorities need to be able protect vulnerable persons which means they can't be desahucio until alternatives are provided.

Ehh, google?
This link might help your quest for legal info. https://getbueno.com/blog/spanish-squatter-laws/

What protection of vulnerable person? Owner is in UK and under UK protection!
Owner needs solicitor, not police protection.

Isexsmith is not referring to the owner but to any children among the illegal occupants.

Rosemary

Thank you
​​​​​I am simply pointing out the okupacion is not legal and all Okupas will eventually be removed and many charged and fined. Desahucio means eviction
There is however a law that protects people from being homeless especially if it involves children these are the cases where they mean vulnerable. This simply means that the court order of eviction can be delayed until suitable accommodation is found and this usually requires the assistance of local ayuntamientos. The poster above seemed to be suggesting that legal occupation exists in Spain and doesn't in UK.

You'll probably find that the squatters now have a bogus rental contract and the police were responding to the squatters (tenants) claims that they were being harassed by the landlord. They will also complain if utilities are withdrawn and the owner(s) could find themselves in trouble with the police. Rental contracts are a civil matter and the police are unlikely to respond but they will respond to breaking & entering if reported promptly.

When did the squatters occupy the property? TBH the advice to pay them is sound and there are solicitors/lawyers/gestors that specialise in negotiating a price to get them out. Once out I would strongly recommend additional securityinsurance to keep them from returning.

I have heard a "story" where the original owners never reported anything, but just put the building under surveillance and waited patiently until such a day and time when all the "new occupants" were out of the house (apparently the clever ones never leave the property unguarded) and then they made their move: got in, immediate change of locks, moved any belongings that weren't their own next to a bin down the road... and pretended as if... nothing... ever... happened.

The okupas came back completely startled, couldn't get in, weren't happy, even kept scouting out the house themselves for a few weeks (probably just to seek revenge) but eventually gave up and were never seen again.

I think that tactic is something I'd try first.

The first thing on the news today was manifestations all over Spain yesterday about housing. 3.8 million properties are empty for most of the year and folk in some cities have to pay over 50% of their salary on rents. Rents in some places have increased by 25 % in the year. Now the idea is that they are going to try and arrange a nationwide strike - where no one pays rent for a period in order to force the government to do something about the situation. It does look as if short term rents will be abolished and legal okupacion will arise - so speculators and tourist rentals look as if they will be the first targets. It won't be popular with home owners.

https://www.eldiario.es/economia/desahucios-control-alquileres-prohibicion-coto-fondos-buitre-demandas-aliviar-crisis-vivienda_1_11729630.html

https://www.20minutos.es/noticia/5642711/0/vivienda-casi-imposible-para-los-jovenes-alquileres-que-se-comen-mas-mitad-sueldo-pisos-compartidos-los-30/

I came across this piece rr the issue of holiday let's and ABnB. As you say the issue seems to be gaining momentum. Yet the government in the other hand is still pushing to increase tourism numbers. Personally I can't see tourism reducing, I can see hotel hostal costs going up once there is a significant reduction in available ABnB type places. Will the reduction of such places really resolve the housing issue, will those doing short term rentals of say their holiday homes want to go into long term rental? It's a very complex issue to deal with. A bit like the UK housing issue, there hasn't been sufficient affordable social housing built for a long time. In the UK certainly where we used to live in the NE within commuting distance of Newcastle there have been large private estates built large 4 and 5 bedroom homes. Such developments have little affect on housing issue as unaffordable to many who need affordable social housing much of which was sold off and never replaced under the right to buy scheme. In Spain it's similar but to do with tourism and property development to meet tourism/holiday homes/rental properties that meet criteria of both.,, It's all a bit of a vicious cycle that it would seem many in Spain are now saying enough is enough.
https://www.terrameridiana.com/35880...ing-spain.html
​​​​

Just lots of hot air, nothing will be fixed.
Issue is global and affect many countries. UK tried fixing it by increasing council tax on second homes, especially in Cornwall areas. Made no difference.
Dublin has huge problem with lack of long term rental and there is no solution.
Portugal tried to fix same issue by blocking new rental licenses, but that also failed to achieve anything.
Dont think issue will be ever resolved, without one party taking big hit.

Yes it's not a straightforward issue to fix

Getting rid of short-term rentals is key, Singapore did just that early on when they recognised the problem and everything returned to normal.

If you cannot earn a single $ from short-term rent because this isn't allowed then those properties will be made available for regular rent as before. This will also make a MASSIVE difference to the current price craze as in touristy areas this has essentially been driven by investment for short-term let purposes. I know a guy who has a real estate agency and literally 19 out of 20 sales are to people who have no intention of living here and their sole reason for purchasing the property is the notion of high returns from short-term lets.

They can pay more than regular buyers because they believe they can get enormous returns. Prices go up, the regular rental market gets suffocated because there is little supply, and so the spiral of misfortune continues...

I personally think there is nothing easier to fix (and I mean absolutely nothing) than this. The problem is that nobody actually wants to fix the issue so we get into this pretend game of applying half-measures or convincing the public that it cannot be done, or that this or that won't work, etc. The reason? A lot of people are making money from this, and for property owners rising house prices (and rents) are a good thing.

But if you really wanted to you could deal with this problem so, so, so easily.