Spain’s Squatting problem (“Okupas”)
A few months ago I received an email from one of our readers urgently asking us to refer him a lawyer.
He and his wife, who live in a popular hill town on the Costa del Sol, suddenly had a couple of issues to contend with. They had been away for some time while their Polish contractor was readying the house for them to move into. They came back home to find no Polish contractor….and a Spanish couple and their cat living in their home.
The contractor was no longer contactable. He had disappeared. He had, of course, been pre-paid for a portion of his services. And the Spanish couple in the house said they had been invited by the contractor to live in the uninhabited house.
It seemed like the classic “Okupas” situation and our reader didn’t know what to do.
Spain’s Okupas problem
Most foreigners coming to Spain can’t wrap their heads around the squatting (or “Okupas” as it’s referred to) problem. When I first heard about it my reaction was ¨What, people can live in someone’s home and not be physically removed by authorities?! That’s crazy¨.
Spain has a complicated view of squatting and it’s obscured even more by the Spanish constitution which declares that all Spanish citizens have the right to decent and adequate housing. In law, the Urban Leases Act of 1994 allows people to occupy unused or abandoned properties without the owner’s permission. The intent of the law was to provide housing for the vulnerable.
In some cases, you can understand the law’s reasoning. During the 2008 financial crash for example, many buildings around Spain were left half-built or abandoned by developers. Squatters moved into many of these properties and ¨claimed right¨ to them.
Squatting took a different turn during Covid when holiday homes were uninhabited. They were easy targets for squatters who took over the properties, claiming ¨a right to housing¨.
Because of housing shortages and economic equality, the laws have been very lenient when it comes to squatting. In some areas, most specifically Catalonia (Barcelona has the highest rate of squatting in Spain), politicians and activist groups have worked to protect squatters and have even published a Squatting manual* to help squatters work around the laws.
*I’m not going to link it here but you can find it online.
But squatting is no longer done just by younger people or the homeless, it’s become professional. Professional scamming squatters hunt uninhabited apartments on real estate sites (if you’re advertising a home for rent or sale and its uninhabited, never disclose the address!) and even mafias are involved. Why? Because once they’re in your home they’ll work the system and it’ll take you years to get them out through the courts. They’re counting on owners coming to some kind of financial settlement to get them out. I’ve even read examples of mafia and mediators working hand-in-hand to extricate the maximum amounts possible from home owners.
So a law that was intended to provide housing for the vulnerable is now being abused by others.
Another thing: it’s not just people breaking into your uninhabited home and taking over. Some Okupas situations revolve around you renting your home to a family. They’ll pay the first month and then refuse to vacate. You can take them to court but again, the problem is the time the courts take to move things along. It might be years before the squatters can be removed.
So squatters, along with defaulting tenants, are a major problem for homeowners in Spain and something you have to prepare against.
The 48 hour law
The most important thing working for homeowners is the 48-hour rule. Under Spanish law, squatters can only be evicted right away if they’ve moved in within the last 48 hours (something called Immediate Eviction). If they’ve moved in within the last 48 hours and you can prove that the property is yours, police have the right to evict them without a court date.
Detecting squatters within 48 hours can be difficult if homeowners are away.
Some precautions you can take:
- Install security cameras and alarms.
- Hire someone (maybe a management company) to check on your property several times a week.
- Make friends with the neighbours and have a mutual arrangement to check on each other’s properties when away.
The goal is to detect squatters as quickly as possible and to report it to police within 48 hours. Doing so, the police have the right to evict them immediately.
Even so, scamming squatters have a few tricks.
- One of them is called ¨The Pizza Tactic¨ where they’ll order a pizza to your address. The pizza will come and the would-be squatter will wait outside, collecting the pizza and the receipt. Once 48 hours have passed, they’ll break into your home. If the police come, they’ll show the pizza receipt, showing they’ve “occupied¨ the home for more than 2 days.
- Squatters will sometimes change the locks, put chains on doors, weld doors shut….all to keep police from accessing the property immediately.
- They’ll bring more people into the home, including children and pets. Okupas with children and pets are always harder to get rid of (I’ve heard of Airbnb owners not wanting to rent to families with children because of this reason).
The police are wise to most of these tricks and *should* check with neighbours about the status of the owners. Another reason to maintain good relations with the people around you.
What if squatters have been in your home over 48 hours?
If it’s been over 48 hours then you need legal counsel and have to go through the process of getting a court eviction.
You’ll have to prove that the property is yours. So you’ll need proof of ownership, photos of the property, even neighbour witness accounts. If you travelled somewhere when the squatting took place you’ll have to show tickets and bills. The onus is on you as an owner to prove that the property is yours.
Once you’ve done the above, the squatters will be formally advised and they’ll have their chance to present their legal rights to ownership of the property or prove that they’re paying to be there. A decision will then be made and a date set for the squatters to leave. If they’re still there, the police will be able to forcibly remove them on this date.
Note however that the court system is slow and the squatters know their rights and how to manipulate the system. I’ve mentioned the Squatting manual above. It can take a few years to get rid of squatters, all while you’re paying all the bills associated with the property. And chances are these ¨tenants¨ aren’t going to take good care of your property so you don’t know what kind of shape your home will be in once you finally get them out.
Have a look at this post I found which details okupas stories.
(I’ll include a few more informational links at the bottom of this post).
Back to the Polish contractor and the Spanish couple
Our friend and his wife were lucky. The Spanish couple that had moved into their house were amiable enough and they struck a deal and agreed to leave. Once they did, the first thing our readers did was change the locks and have a security system put in.
They never heard back from their Polish contractor who disappeared with thousands of euros of money that was pre-paid for AC units, bathroom furniture and other odds and ends…
Be aware
In the end, our friends came out of this without too much loss. But they wanted their story told so that people are aware, not just of the potential issues with squatters but also of the fraudsters that you have to watch out for in the construction business.
A few interesting articles that helped me research this post:
Squatting handbook: learn the tricks and stop it from happening to you in Spain
Squatting in Spain: Understanding Spain’s “okupas” problem
Spanish Squatter Laws: Protecting Your Property As An Owner
The hard men removing squatters in Spain – BBC
Note: We share a lot of our posts on Facebook and I know people prefer to comment there. But if you’ve had a personal experience with squatting or know someone who has, I’d love if you could comment below. It allows everyone reading this post, no matter how they got to it, to benefit from other people’s experiences. Thank you!
Related: The best things about living in Spain
When we had Squatters on the Community during the Pandemic, the Guardia Civil said they were powerless to do anything and suggested the owner hire an Antiokupas company. It should be noted that the owner of the house did not have a connected alarm system, which would have proved that the squatters had only been there 24 hours instead of the ‘3 weeks’ they quoted. The owner tried to get them out by the Court system but this was too slow and eventually he did use Antiokupas. Total cost with Solicitors fees, Antiokupas fee and payment to the squatters was €10k, but at least he got his €400k house back. The house was up for sale, so this is how we think the ‘firm’ got in to suss things out, because we are a small gated Community. The damage the squatters did to his house and to the Community, was awful, and it cost him and the Community to put things right and a small fortune for owners to ‘up their security’.. They even cut off people’s electricity, in spite. So get yourself a ‘connected alarm system’ approx cost 40/45€ a month but well worth it, and keep good friends with your neighbours !!
Thank you Sue for the great comment. It’s true, I read that somewhere: during Covid there were laws in place that they could not evict squatters. So a holiday for squatters. Unbelievable.
Thank you so much for the comment, great to hear personal stories.
I wish everyone knew about this, I know a few people who have had issues with this including one friend who’s had okupas in his home for over a year now. It’s ridiculous and has given me 2nd thoughts on ever buying a home in Spain.
I don’t know honestly how this can be allowed to go on. Thank you Jack.
This is great advice, I am at the moment starting to plan aneighbourhood watch group as an apartment on our urbanization has squatters , my first move is to contact the local police liaison officer and try to work with our admin to e-mail all owners etc , if you have any advice I would appreciate it . Regards Ray
I don’t Ray but good luck. I don’t know how useful the police will be but getting all the neighbours together is really I think the key. All the best!