Due to a misunderstood political correctness in relation to the social drama of evictions, when the housing problem is addressed and the new law tends to mute a phenomenon that affects hundreds of citizens.
The 'concern'.
In this article we are not talking about big holders, or wealthy people, or vulture funds, or the bad bank. Not at all. We are talking here about the small proprietor, perhaps you, reader. Someone with a flat that he maintains and on which he pays taxes but in which he does not reside. A property, private yes, that one day he leased to some tenants who haven't paid the rent for months and who still refuse to leave.
De facto, the new Housing law favors the defaulter to the point that the owner is left totally defenseless before, during and after entering the maze of justice into which he is pushed only to recover his property.
There are no data, although I invite you to talk with the lawyers who manage these matters. They will explain to them that there are more and more cases of non-payment of rent, that the folders are piling up, that the situation is getting worse. The new type of occupation has a different legal nature from squatting, with k, although with similar effects.
There is no choice but to open a judicial process. The sentence will come, hopefully, 14 or 16 months from the filing of the lawsuit. In that long time and for more legal warnings or burofax that are transferred to them, non-paying tenants remain armored. There are the cheeky ones, who don't pay for the nose. And also the specialists in demanding a "tip" worth a couple of thousand euros in exchange for leaving the apartment. Then there are the vulnerable.
The small owner always pays the price, even if he has a modest income, such as a pension or an average salary. Not only will he have lost his income while the process lasts, but more than 3,000 euros will be left along the way in legal costs and in the minutes of a lawyer and the attorney. Many times, in addition, he has paid for the water and light supplies for the apartment. Ah, he can now forget about collecting the accumulated debt, not even with a sentence, ever.
If the lessee declares himself vulnerable, it gets more complicated. The public "shield" is strengthened, along with legal tolerance. Politicians speak haphazardly, without thinking. Because if something can be inferred from the 'concern', it is that the public protection system fails alarmingly. There is no social housing for rehouses. And not only that: social services, slow and ineffective, do not respond due to their lack of resources and NGOs cannot always come to the aid of people.
Whatever the point of view from which the serious housing conflict in Spain is observed, one thing is clear. It cannot be the citizen who bears a responsibility that corresponds only and exclusively to the administrations. Let's take the mute out of this topic. And this is not a question of ideology or solidarity. To collectivize the problems, there are already taxes.
