Nine organized groups dedicated to renting illegal tourist apartments are still resisting pressure from Barcelona City Council. Municipal inspectors detect about 500 advertisements for irregular accommodation every month. The forceful fines from the Consistory do not deter them. And the impudence with which they operate exasperates neighbors and owners. The government of Mayor Jaume Collboni asks for more legal tools to stop them. These schemes undermine coexistence on the landings, complicate people's access to housing, make a living from tax evasion...
José Matías Vilaclara is the owner of a studio next to a house on Cucurulla street, in the Gòtic neighborhood. The property has 157 m2, five bedrooms and three bathrooms. A few days ago the City Council informed him that if he does not put an end to the irregular uses of his property, it will impose a fine of ten thousand euros. “It is the third request I have received,” he says. Once again I have to prove that I am not responsible for this.”
In August 2021 he rented his property to a charming Swede who claimed to work for a multinational. “Shortly the neighbors began to complain about the rush of tourists,” he says. I hired a detective and found out that they had set up a clandestine boarding house through Airbnb. Very professional, with people in charge of giving the keys to the clients, people who renew the ads, cleaning staff... Then I make a notarial document with everything, I send the tenant a burofax with the resolution of the contract, informed the City Council so that they do not I fined myself... And then the trial date came out: March 11, 2024. I've been waiting for more than two years! And then the judge will have to issue a ruling, and the tenant will be able to appeal it... Maybe the contract ends before the litigation. Furthermore, I suspect that lately they have a woman there, her daughter and her grandson, to serve the tourists, and I am worried that it is also a ruse that makes eviction difficult. Because these people continue paying the rent, to have their pension as long as the better. You feel so helpless, do these people always get their way?”
The municipal inspectors say that they have been after this group for years, that they opened files for irregularities in 82 flats and issued 37 fines totaling more than one million euros, that they constantly inform the Tax Agency and the Mossos of their activities. . tax evasion? Documentary falsification? They are other threads to pull. The ringleader of the Swedes' plot has no assets in his name, nor is it clear where he lives. Cucurulla's rent is paid through a third party, so as not to leave a trace.
“This is not like in the movies where you catch the bad guys and that's it,” the inspectors add. We are talking about administrative infractions whose object is a home, and housing is an asset that is highly protected by law. It is relatively easy to close a nightclub that fails to comply with the regulations, but it is very difficult to seal and change the lock on a home. And the neighbors' complaint is not enough. We have to find the tourists in the apartment and prove that they paid to stay there. In addition, the system is very reliable. The offender has many moments to appeal, and then can file an administrative dispute. A sanction can take two years to become final. We would need stronger tools. We act according to the Tourism Law of the Generalitat. But we must be very cautious when establishing sanctions because judges will strike them down if they see them as disproportionate. These groups try to operate until the procedure is exhausted. There's big money at stake. “Some squeeze the situation until they go abroad.”
Sources from Mayor Collboni's government point out that cities need more legal tools to confront these organized groups. The socialist executive hopes that the European Union will finalize as soon as possible a new regulation that forces digital platforms to ensure that they only offer regulated accommodation, and also demands that the regulations regarding unauthorized uses of housing shield the fines in this regard imposed by municipalities. Furthermore, the municipal government understands that the Tax Agency and the police have to be much more involved in combating networks that often act like mafia organizations.
At the moment the City Council has 70 workers looking for irregular accommodation. Municipal pressure swept away many individuals in search of once easy money. Since 2016, the City Council analyzed 67,934 advertisements and opened 22,728 disciplinary files that resulted in 9,679 orders to cease activity and 10,493 sanctions. And meanwhile it detected 36 organized groups. These groups control at least 680 apartments, and have 336 sanctions and 25 termination orders. Today, of all these networks, 15 remain active, six on a rather occasional basis and nine “with notable activity.” Every month, inspectors send about 500 advertisements for offers that do not comply with the law to digital platforms. Behind these announcements are mainly these groups.
This Christmas the City Council made public the processing of a fine of 420,000 euros against the owner of number 24 Ample Street, also in Gòtic. The plot of the Swedes is dedicated above all to sub-rentals. Here the strategy is different. The municipal inspectors understand that for decades this multi-offender has been renting 14 of the 17 homes on this property to tourists on a daily basis without any type of permit, and that he does so through screen tenants, claiming that he is not responsible for what they do. its tenants, who are the ones who rent the rooms in apartments that are around 150 m2.
Despite this fine, residents of the street report that tourists continue entering and leaving this building. Last week, simply by googling Ample 24, one found ads that offered the possibility of renting rooms in this property by the day. Also, if you get closer you will find a laundromat employee with a bunch of bags of clean sheets. As if that were a hotel. Lately, a man has been acting as a janitor, standing at the door all the time, and openly distrusting anyone who stares.
“Everything remains the same,” say surrounding neighbors, with discouragement. “As if they took the fines as a joke.” “Before, years ago, this building was full of neighbors…” “During the pandemic, since there were no tourists, they rented rooms to people in need, to get by, and as soon as the tourists returned they kicked them all out.” “And if they don't let them rent rooms for days, then they will rent the apartments for months, which in reality is the same for the neighborhood, right?”
And at the beginning of December, as La Vanguardia reported, the City Council implemented the highest sanction ever filed against an individual in this city, 600,000 euros against the alleged mastermind of the largest network of illegal tourist apartments detected in Barcelona. We are talking about more than 70 apartments in Eixample and Ciutat Vella. Municipal inspectors maintain that this network also makes use of straw tenants, and also a lot of commercial companies, to hide its activities. At this time the inspection services are resolving the allegations presented.
And meanwhile, if you go to a few affected properties, in the neighborhoods of Gòtic, l'Esquerra del Eixample and Sant Pere, Santa Caterina and la Ribera, the neighbors tell you yes, that after the fine they continued to meet tourists with suitcases, that these people do whatever they want, that they are fed up... “They are a bunch of fools who go through everything, even when it is their turn to be president of the community,” they say at 165 Mallorca. “Sometimes you get drunk and you have to put up with it,” they add in 67 Mallorca. “With a fine, without a fine, many inspectors have come here! but these people do what they want – they speak at 23 Nou de Sant Francesc. Look, these days we have Germans, let's see how they behave!”
But the evils of these groups go further. “They are still determined to kick us out,” say the residents of number 16 Giralt del Pellicer Street, who accuse this network of mobbing, of wanting to kick them out of their apartments to turn them into tourist apartments, just as it did in the neighboring blocks. The other day the false squatters installed in two floors that these people sent to us to embitter us caused another flood. In truth we can no longer call them false squatters. That day, when the police arrived, they showed them some papers that apparently authorize them to be in these homes. We can't live like this. We are always overwhelmed, in tension. We ask the City Council to free us from these people, to remove the false squatters or to take us to a social apartment. Do these people give a damn about fines of 600,000 euros? After the fine we saw tourists in the apartments they have on the neighboring properties. "They don't seem willing to change their plans. Are they going to get their way in the end?"
