El Campello (Alicante) town hall wants tougher laws for evicting squatters

CAMPELLO councillors approved a motion recommending a tougher line on squatters, particularly those allied to organised ‘mafias.’

The proposal was backed by the Partido Popular, Ciudadanos, Vox and the non-aligned councillor Eva Segura. 

All agreed that prison sentences of between three and five years for breaking into and occupying properties should be incorporated into Spain’s Penal Code.

This, the councillors agreed, would provide improved protection for owners – individuals or companies – trying to regain possession of a property that had been occupied without their permission.

The motion also proposed that immediate eviction of squatters should be possible in cases of a “flagrant” offence or within 24 hours in other cases. To make this easier, property laws should provide a residential complex’s Community of Property Owners with the status of a corporate body, enabling them to start the legal process of recovering an occupied property.

The same motion recommended that squatters should not be allowed to register on the municipal Padron.

All the proposals were opposed by the PSPV socialists, Compromis, Izquierda Unida and Compromis, while the Red party abstained.

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