The Department of Social Rights has announced today the elaboration of the draft decree by which the regulation of the registration of empty flats and of occupied without a qualifying title and that of large homeowners will be approved. The objective of the Government is to have greater control of the empty buildings in Catalonia with the aim of solving social housing problems, as indicated in a statement.
The Agència de l'Habitatge de Catalunya (AHC) quantifies the number of illicitly occupied dwellings in its stock at more than a thousand, which represents 4.6% of the total. The Generalitat verified an increase in occupations from 2017, when 72 entries were recorded in flats of its park, twice as many as in the previous year. In 2018, they rose to 138 and in 2019, to 231, to begin a decline in 2020 (222) and in 2021 (183).
Law 1/2022, of March 3, records the need to create a registry of large holders, in which information regarding the situation of unoccupied or occupied homes without a qualifying title must be recorded; specifically, the ownership, location, surface area, whether they have a certificate of occupancy and other data that allow determining the conservation and maintenance conditions of each property. Likewise, the identification of the previous owner, the amount of the award and the date, if applicable, of the launch or vacancy must be stated. Finally, the circumstances and conditions of the cessation of the unemployment condition must be specified.
The purpose of this registry is the registration of the large holders "to facilitate both the application of the concertation measures with the Administration and the application of those mechanisms that are part of their obligations and determined by Catalan regulations," the statement indicates.
It should be remembered that the AHC's board of directors approved last February a new protocol to determine the criteria for action in occupied homes without qualifying legal title, in the more than a thousand of its property. The challenge is to recover them "so that they can fulfill their social function and be awarded through the legally established procedures."
