In Spain there has been a lot of controversy about the legislation with squatters. There has been a long-standing public debate about whether squatting laws need to be changed in order to protect private property owners.
In this legislature, in fact, the squatting data in Spain have skyrocketed to an increase of 41% compared to the previous reading. From 2018 to 2021, the 12,214 annual complaints went from 17,274, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
Now France is moving in the direction of protecting the owner, according to the change in legislation. And it is that the French National Assembly (Lower House) has recently approved a bill that seeks to toughen the regulations against housing occupations. In this sense, this new framework would increase prison sentences from one to three years and fines from 15,000 to 45,000 euros.
This proposal by the executive of the neighboring country is an initiative that started from the parliamentary block of the presidential simple majority, it was approved in first reading with 40 votes in favor and 13 against, thanks to the support of the deputies of the conservative group Los Republicanos and of the far-right National Grouping of Marine Le Pen. The text, which is entitled "Protection of homes against illegal occupation", will now be submitted for processing in the French Senate.
The new legislative proposal provides landlords with legal actions against illegal squatters and tenants who do not pay their rent. This is a problem that affects some 288,000 homes, according to the National Fund for Family Subsidies, but it could grow due to the rise in inflation. It would replace the previous framework, which had the protection of privacy as its central reference.
Guillaume Kasbarian, deputy who is the main promoter of this proposal, specified during the debates in the National Assembly that the regulations protect small owners who are not "swimming in gold".
But this measure did not meet with the approval of the leftist forces. Among the most outstanding France Insumisa (LFI). For progressive forces, this bill is contrary to the right to housing, especially in a context of the already difficult housing market, and will lead to an increase in homelessness.
With this text, the fines and penalties against those who illegally occupy a home triple and would reach a maximum of three years in jail and a penalty of 45,000 euros. The regulations will also toughen the penalties against criminals who illegally rent other people's houses to squatters.
In Spain, squatters now use the so-called 'pizza technique' to avoid express eviction. That is why last September, the PSOE took advantage of the processing of the Law on Organizational Efficiency of Justice to present two legislative modifications to expedite the evictions of illegally occupied properties: that judges can order the departure of squatters in 48 hours and that popular juries stop dealing with cases of trespassing.
In those amendments, what the PSOE was proposing was a modification of the Criminal Procedure Law (LECrim) so that "in processes related to home invasions or usurpation of immovable property or real estate rights belonging to others", the judge or court may reasonably agree to the eviction "within a maximum period of 48 hours from the request at the request of a legitimate party or from the referral of the police report, without the need for the provision of a security, if the occupants of the property do not exhibit within said period the legal title that legitimizes the permanence in the property”.
And it included a second point to ensure that there is no neglect of minors or people of special vulnerability: "When, due to the adoption and execution of the eviction, the existence of people at risk of social exclusion or of special vulnerability or a situation of risk or possible neglect of a minor, the judge or court shall immediately notify the competent local or regional public entity in matters of social services and protection of minors, as well as the Public Prosecutor, so that they can adopt measures of protection that are necessary”, he specified.
