The Balearic Government has imposed a record fine of 2,040,068 euros on a man who rented 68 substandard housing for which he charged between 300 and 700 euros per month. These are underground rooms that in some cases measured just over 10 square meters in which there was no ventilation, light or the slightest hygiene conditions. The man, who is a local police officer in Palma, had taken advantage of garages to make divisions and rent them as housing to people with very few resources who were sometimes forced to share.
He also rented storage rooms and many of his tenants were irregular immigrants whom the man had intimidated because of his status as a police officer. In some of these rooms, without habitable conditions, there was a bathroom, shower, stove and refrigerator, in addition to the bed and other items. There were also gas cylinders for cooking, with the enormous risk of gas leaking and a subsequent explosion.
The General Directorate of Housing of the Government has now imposed the highest fine in the history of the Balearic Islands for a circumstance of this nature since it considers that it is a very serious offense. The Balearic Housing Law classifies the construction or rental of substandard housing as very serious and establishes fines of between 30,001 and 90,000 euros for each of these infractions.
The man was arrested last November when the conditions in which his tenants lived, many of them people who do not have proper documentation, became known. Some of these tenants stopped paying when the landlord was arrested, so now they fear facing a lawsuit for possible eviction. The complaint against the man had been filed by the Conselleria d’Habitatge itself when it became aware of the situation of these substandard housing.
The inspection carried out after the arrest concluded that the man manipulated the light and electricity meters to hide his illegal activity. The inspectors confirmed the poor condition of the rooms, which were sometimes shared by more than one person.
The financial penalty is the highest of all those that have been imposed so far. Since the law came into force in 2019, 54 sanctions have been approved for offering or advertising substandard housing. The highest sanctions had been one of 210,000 euros and another of 180,006 euros. The Housing Law includes two types of infractions: one for constituting substandard housing based on unauthorized basements where people live, something that is considered a very serious infraction.
The other infraction, considered serious, consists of advertising substandard rental housing. In this case, the sanctions range from 3,001 to 30,000 euros, while in the first case, in which a substandard housing is established, the sanction ranges from 30,001 to 90,000 euros.
