A bill that includes the arguments of the Catalan bar associations, especially those of Mataró and Barcelona, ??to apply urgent measures to deal with the illegal occupation of real estate will reach Congress through the Plural parliamentary group ( PDeCat), which has taken on the arguments put forward by jurists such as Julio Naveira, former president of the Council of Catalan Lawyers and former dean of the Mataró bar, Maria Pastor, current dean, or Núria Moreno, lawyer and councilor of the City Council of the capital of Maresme, among others.
The text, which was previously presented to the European Union but was rejected on the understanding that the European court does not have powers, will have to be debated or amended by the Spanish deputies. It refers to the need to criminally tax the occupation of real estate, a scourge that is especially worrying in Catalonia, where half of the cases in all of Spain are registered. For this reason, the lawyers who propose changes in the legislation establish the need for the occupation or search of a home or the usurpation of a premises to be considered a real crime. “Occupation is the only crime in which possession is not returned to the victim immediately,” Naveira details.
“The police cannot act in an occupation,” says the jurist. On the other hand, in other countries such as Italy, once the guard court has verified the usurpation and has attended to the police reports, the eviction takes place within 24 hours. In this case, the recommended time for eviction is estimated at 48 hours.
Likewise, the proposal provides a greater guarantee of effectiveness for the action of the communities of owners to act against illegal squatters who damage the farm or cause conflicts with the community. They suggest that the president of the community be able to take civil action and initiate a precautionary measure, such as an eviction order.
Along the same lines, they propose the modification of Law 7/1985, which regulates the Bases of the Local Regime, so that the municipalities can act in cases in which an occupation generates conflicts in the neighborhoods or neighborhoods and even generates citizen security problems, as usually happens with the occupations carried out by criminal associations in the narco flats.
The modification of the Criminal Procedure Law is proposed in the cases in which a crime is known so that the courts can adopt the eviction measure if the occupants of the property cannot show a legal title that legitimizes their stay. In these circumstances they should be evicted and made available to social services or other support systems, depending on the special vulnerability in each case.
The proposal also recommends adding a paragraph to Law 49/1960 on horizontal property so that, in the event that the owner of the house does not exercise any action, within ten days the community of owners could execute the action of eviction
In the new text, powers are granted to municipalities, based on the application of the terms of state legislation, to guarantee security and coexistence in cases of illegal occupation.
