11:24 AM, 23rd November 2020, About 4 years ago 20
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Recently I have been getting to know some landlords in Spain. I think it’s good for us to network with others – to support each other if nothing else.
The Spanish landlords have been explaining to me quite how bad it is for them now. They have a huge problem – an epidemic of squatting – divided into two categories:
Of course, we now face a comparable problem in the UK with the second category – now that the Government has handed control of our properties over to non-paying tenants for up to 2 years or more. JUSTICE FOR LANDLORDS! – Property118
One of these landlords, Pilar Damian, has given me permission to post here a letter which she tried to get into the British national newspapers. She warns the British against investing in a country which now seems to have abandoned any pretence of respecting the private property rights which underpin our Western democracies.
Warning to all English people with properties in Spain
Spain has become a squatters’ paradise due to the laxity of the relevant legislation. In just fifteen minutes, the time a squatter needs to change a lock, an owner can be left homeless for up to two years or more.
Did you know that in Spain, if squatters occupy your home:
– It makes no difference that you own the house or that it is your usual home.
– The owner loses all rights over it.
– You also lose all rights to your most personal possessions. Nothing inside the house can be recovered.
If the owner disturbs them or cuts off their supply of water or electricity, (the owner is obliged to keep paying for them), the squatters will report it and the owner will have to pay compensation. The owner will be taken to court with the corresponding legal costs but the squatters will have legal aid lawyers, so it will be free for them.
During the first week of occupation of my house, the squatters installed internet. As soon as they can provide one utility bill with the squatter’s name at the invaded address, the city hall is obliged by law to register them as residents. While the court procedures for eviction are taking place, the property is officially the home of the squatters, and they can get income support and public benefits.
Mafias are organising much of the squatting. When the mafia know that the day of eviction is coming, they’ll sell the key for €500 to €2,000 to another squatter, and the whole process begins again with a different accused person, so you can lose your house for years. They are no longer looking for abandoned houses. They look for houses in good condition with appliances and facilities, such as nearby schools or parking spaces. My squatters own two cars.
While the normal eviction process can take up to 2 years, a new legal procedure for “express” eviction now exists. It takes 3 or 4 months in normal times (much longer now with coronavirus) and is very costly to the owner. Despite being Spanish and knowing the language and institutions of the country I am still struggling to get my house back. I cannot imagine the hell that an English citizen would have to go through.
This is a growing problem in this country, causing much suffering to owners and disruption to neighbourhoods, but the government seems reluctant to act to prevent the abuses and extortions that this has generated.
I am a 62-year-old midwife, working in the health sector throughout the pandemic and my house is the only property that I own. This has been my experience and the experience of many families across the country.
No matter the economic or social status of the location, whether you own a flat, house or villa, this can happen to anyone in Spain during a weekend or a holiday. And it happens too often. It is important that UK citizens are alerted to this situation, especially at this time when travel to visit their properties has been disrupted.
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steve136
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Sign Up13:40 PM, 24th November 2020, About 4 years ago
if there is no law to stop the squatters what the law to stop landlords?
I mean can you just kick down the door and move in yourself?
Chris @ Possession Friend
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Sign Up17:52 PM, 24th November 2020, About 4 years ago
Reply to the comment left by steve136 at 24/11/2020 - 13:40
I imagine Landlords may find some 'appropriate people' ( for a consideration, which would be a lot less than solicitors fee's - and much quicker ) to do just that. !
Matarredonda
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Sign Up19:37 PM, 24th November 2020, About 4 years ago
Living in Andalucia as I do in an inland village I can confirm the validity of this.
Town Halls don't like rough sleepers so actively inform them of empty properties particularly if they are owned by foreigners.
Dutch couple in our village had a property for air nb rental and when he was back in Holland squatters entered despite having a steel door and took him 8 months to get back.
A British couple have a holiday home and they came over and a father and daughter were sleeping the house!
Fear UK moving in the same direction as set out in the OP as helps to get people off the streets.
Chris @ Possession Friend
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Sign Up19:54 PM, 24th November 2020, About 4 years ago
Reply to the comment left by Matarredonda at 24/11/2020 - 19:37
That's outrageous !
LaLo
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Sign Up21:48 PM, 24th November 2020, About 4 years ago
Reply to the comment left by Matarredonda at 24/11/2020 - 19:37
Hola, We have a holiday home in an inland village in Andalucia but we've not been able to go there with all the complications of C19. I've reached the point of doing something illegal to them as people never like there own medicine and then I'd fly home quick! With the authorities being the joke that they are, they'll probably not bother to pursue!
Beaver
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Sign Up8:48 AM, 27th November 2020, About 4 years ago
Reply to the comment left by TrevL at 23/11/2020 - 18:20
TrevL is correct: Millions of people have had their lives ruined as a consequence of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It wasn't the virus that did it. It was the response.
There was a great programme on last night about the Spanish flu pandemic of the 1st world war and just after. The programme said that the reason it was called Spanish flu was because coverage in the press in places like the UK was suppressed, but the Spanish press talked openly about it.
What was interesting about the programme for me was that they seemed to be trying to compare the programme to the recent Covid-19 outbreak. They did make the point that Covid-19 is a different disease. "Spanish" flu killed millions. If you look at the data Pfizer recently produced only 94 cases of illness occurred in a trial involving more than 43,000 participants. Covid-19 kills a tiny number of people compared to flu.
The programme last night was good in some respects. They linked the disease to overcrowded troop ships, overcrowded slums in Manchester, overcrowded troop camps. Most respiratory diseases are diseases of overcrowding and you'd probably find that locking people in buildings under overcrowded conditions particularly where you have several generations of people living together would make the situation worse; it is what we would predict from everything we knew even before Covid-19. And that's probably what they'll find when they analyse the data.
They'll probably find that of the ~50,000 people who have died so far, sadly a proportion would have died anyway. Many of the others will have come from areas of overcrowding. Places where the parks were shut down and there was nowhere else to be but stuck indoors breathing other people's stale air. In the programme they identified the source of the outbreak as a soldier in a camp in America. Somebody wanted to shut the camp down to stop the virus spreading.
For me the programme missed something. That is that by the time the GP sentinel practices picked up Covid-19 it was already all over the country; it was already out, spreading, everywhere. It was already too late. Just like the Spanish flu pandemic it was too late to lock everywhere down. It wasn't going to work.
So the response has cost more money than we have ever seen in peacetime. And it is ruining the lives of millions. We are going to see a lot more destitute people unless policy changes.
The fact that there is now an Astra Zeneca vaccine is a cause for rejoicing. I hope that NICE approves it. Even if it isn't 100% effective it will achieve something just by alleviating some of the fear. I went out to Indonesia a couple of decades ago and before I went I had to have a cholera vaccine. I was joking with the GP and said, "...cholera vaccine is only about 50% effective." He was joking back and said, "...in a cholera outbreak 50% effective is better than nothing." It was a joke but it was right. It's not just a question that 70% effective would be enough, it would be good. Get on and approve it NICE.
The big problem now is the debt and where the government is going to go to try and fix the problem without causing the flight of capital. Spain has always been a bit dodgy. Portugal historically has been better.
What the government needs to do now is make sure that the UK is a good place not just to be employed, but also to be self-employed. In the wake of the last crash the growth in new jobs came from the small business sector.
Right now the small business sector is being totally stuffed and that's a bigger issue for landlords than a small number of people they can't evict right now.
Joey
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Sign Up15:18 PM, 29th November 2020, About 4 years ago
Reply to the comment left by steve136 at 24/11/2020 - 13:40
Anyone know if this would work ? / Consequences ?
Joey
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Sign Up15:24 PM, 29th November 2020, About 4 years ago
Reply to the comment left by LaLo at 24/11/2020 - 21:48
Hi Lalo, I fear if this happens, could you enlighten me on what I could do to get them out ? +44(0)7970377417 Ref : " I've reached the point of doing something illegal to them as people never like there own medicine and then I'd fly home quick! With the authorities being the joke that they are, they'll probably not bother to pursue!"
Steve Hards
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Sign Up19:20 PM, 1st December 2020, About 4 years ago
There are regular reports on Spanish TV about the distress caused to people by squatters. Sometimes neighbours demonstrate outside the property in the hope that their displeasure will encourage them to go away but it rarely seems to work. We are just keeping our fingers crossed that our apartment is low profile enough not to come to the squatters attention. Why the Spanish government is not doing something about it is a mystery and I don't think it can all be down to the influence of Pablo Iglesias, the Government's 'Second Deputy Prime Minister' and 'Minister of Social Rights and 2030 Agenda' (He is the hard-left leader of the Podemos Party and was an advisor to Venezuela's Government in the 2000s.) These problems have been endemic for years, exacerbated by the indifference of the police and a clogged-up legal system.
The red flag for us UK landlords is, as Rosalind's headline points out, that this is a symptom of what happens when property rights are undermined. Respect for property rights underpins the rule of law and when the first declines the second is not far behind.
Beaver
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Sign Up8:27 AM, 2nd December 2020, About 4 years ago
Reply to the comment left by Steve Hards at 01/12/2020 - 19:20
It is a red flag; especially now in the Covid-19 crisis.
If you are self-employed and cannot work you cannot pay the rent. If you are furloughed and about to lose your job you will not be able to pay your mortgage and will need to rent; but you will not be able to pay the rent.
If you can't work you can't pay rent: Simple as.
There is nothing more important to landlords in the UK right now than the recovery of the small business sector; the sector that all the new jobs came from after the last financial crisis. I can't see Philip Green or Mike Ashley helping much.
There is also nothing more important to the social housing sector right now than a recovery in the small business sector. Because those people who cannot pay rent because they are unemployed will be dumped on them.