Squatters and how to avoid the situation

By Kaela • Published: 30 Oct 2020 • 12:31

Dear owners,

Since COVID situation the illegal occupation of properties in Spain has increased notably.

The owner of an occupied house only has 48 hours from when the squatters enter the house to notify the police and that they are evicted. After those few hours, squatters can only be evicted by a judge and the process takes from 6 months to 2 years (especially if the squatters have minor children).

During all that time, the owner has to continue paying community fees, local taxes and cannot stop paying for electricity or water if the squatter family has minor children. At the end, the judge evicts them, imposes the payment of compensation to the owner (actually a few euros) and the obligation to repair the damage … but most squatters are insolvent and never pay anything.

And the community has the issue of “users” without any control and any respect to others.

To avoid this situation could very useful to have an alarm system at home and connected to a receiving company that alerts the police so that they act before those 48 hours have elapsed.

In addition, if you rent out your property you should avoid giving clear indications in the advertisement, as occupants use this information to find out which properties are empty.

The maintenance staff is alert, and in case of detecting strange movements, we will contact the owners to confirm if they are in the property or if they could be squatters.

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