Barcelona City Council is finalizing the processing of a record fine against the largest scheme of illegal tourist apartments ever detected in the city. These days, the management of the inspection services is initiating a fine of up to 600,000 euros against the alleged mastermind of a racket involving at least 71 irregular accommodations in the Eixample and Ciutat Vella districts. They argue that this is a very serious infraction classified in article 89 of the Tourism Law of Catalonia. They had never encountered anything like this. The tricks used are unprecedented. Furthermore, the tenants of number 16 Giralt el Pellisser Street have been accusing him of real estate mobbing for months, of trying to make their lives miserable so that they leave and transforming their homes into illegal tourist apartments. But all the maneuvers of this plot remain entangled in a labyrinth of front companies. Mossos and Guardia Urbana are also aware of all this.
The 3,000 pages of the municipal file in this case are the result of more than five years of investigations by City Hall inspectors. In their offices they have a couple of photos hanging of the alleged mastermind of this plot with the word Wanted! overprinted. They detail that those who have been dedicated to illegal tourist accommodation all their lives are a kind of thugs who go all out until they leave the country or apparent white-collar businessmen who try to pretend that they have never broken a plate. The inspectors never found anyone capable of moving so easily from one side to the other.
This story begins in 2016. Inspectors detect a plot that is dedicated to buying homes in the center of Barcelona and then dividing them without any type of permits into two or three apartments each and offering them through Airbnb and Booking. But when the inspectors issue the corresponding order to cease activity and warn of sanctions, the property responds that the apartment is rented, that the tenant is responsible for everything, that they have the contract here that proves it… The appearance of legality It is absolute. And the City Council has no way of locating the tenants. Many live abroad. The strategy of most of the large multi-infringers basically consists of renting properties and then re-renting them for days to tourists until the owner manages to terminate the contract. Buying the apartments is an innovation.
Furthermore, meanwhile, the properties of these homes continually pass from one commercial company to another. The disciplinary proceedings follow one another, but they all end in a dead end. The report from the management of the inspection services maintains that the alleged mastermind of all this “is the administrator of numerous companies whose main corporate purpose is the acquisition and management of real estate to be used for tourist rentals without a qualifying title.” The plot feels so comfortable that in a few cases it even applies for planning permission to divide the properties. In this way they converted fifteen homes into thirty illegal tourist apartments. Then, with the pandemic, everything stops for a season…
And then, the inspectors continue, they begin to take over entire buildings, until they control four properties in the Sant Pere, Santa Caterina i la Ribera neighborhood, just behind the municipal market. Then the inspectors change their strategy, focusing their investigations on the network of a dozen commercial companies that function as front companies, trying to demonstrate that the alleged mastermind of all this is hidden behind them. In addition, they transfer their investigations to the Tax Agency, the Municipal Treasury Institute, the Urban Police, the Work Inspection… At this point the plot includes at least 37 properties that function as 71 illegal tourist apartments. The inspectors calculate that the annual benefits of this network are 1,941,618.60 euros.
“There are currently four hosts on the Airbnb platform that advertise the rental of the apartments that are the subject of this report – the City Council’s papers also include. Some of these apartments were also published on the Booking platform, although they are currently blocked or withdrawn and do not allow reservations to be made. They constantly remove ads and publish new ones to make inspection difficult, although they are easily identifiable because they use the same photographs. “From May 2017 to date, 356 advertisements related to this plot have been detected, of which there are currently 71 active.”
The appearance of legality began to crack a few weeks ago, when the few tenants who still hold out at 16 Giralt el Pelliser denounce in these pages that the new owners of their property are making their lives miserable so that they leave and transform their homes in illegal tourist apartments, that these same people already did the same in the two neighboring properties. This building was acquired in April of this year for 1,600,000 euros through three commercial companies. The alleged mastermind of this entire network pointed out by the municipal inspectors is the administrator of two of them.
The neighbors detailed that he first made some financial offers to get them to leave. Then he launched some reform works that turned their lives into hell. Since it lacked the relevant permits, the City Council suspended these works. The neighbors also claimed that he then sent a few false squatters to break up the coexistence on the stairs. From time to time they pour water through the floors and the neighbors find the walls of their homes dripping. The firefighters themselves point out in a report that it is apparently a case of mobbing.
When La Vanguardia asked the buyer of this property, the alleged mastermind of this entire plot, about all these circumstances, he responded that he had nothing to do with this building, that he was not the owner, that he had no interest in continuing this conversation. A few hours after this conversation took place, the tenants received a call from a person who claimed to represent the new owners of the property. And one day he tells them that they bought the entire building, another that they have already signed the deposit, a third that they only bought several homes on the property… “The City Council – says the inspectors’ report – has received various complaints from tenants of this property. property about the works done without permission and the threats and coercion of this person to abandon the homes and use the property for tourist rental. In fact, facts have been confirmed that could fit with a crime of real estate harassment that is being processed in the corresponding court.” All this forces inspectors to accelerate their investigations. The situation is more disturbing every day.
“The truth is that he is a very special person,” say the inspectors. “You go to see him and he tells you that he doesn’t understand Spanish, that you should talk to him in English… and when you turn around he starts talking in Spanish to his employees.” “You seal an apartment and a few hours later he tears off the stickers and fills it again with tourists.” He “opens an office and does not ask for an activity permit, a procedure that costs nothing…”. “Once he tried to kick out an inspector from one of Pellisser’s Giralt estates. The inspector called the Urban Police. And when the supposed security person saw the agents he turned around and tried to sneak away. The agents told him where he was going… and they verified that he had a criminal record.” “And then he hires very big lawyers.” “Although his apartments do not have a license, he charges his clients the tourist tax through Bizum.” “He presents himself on social networks as a great businessman.”
“This municipal government will continue to be inflexible towards the groups that do business through illegal tourist apartments,” says the deputy mayor for Urban Planning, the socialist Laia Bonet. In recent times we have detected that illegal activity has become specialized and professionalized and networks like this one have appeared that try to avoid the law through all possible means. Our response can be no other than to act with the utmost forcefulness, remain firm and dedicate all efforts to preventing anyone from trading in a basic necessity such as housing. In our city, these types of criminal practices cannot come for free, and we will continue working to guarantee coexistence and the quality of life of the neighbors.”
The management of the inspection services expects to receive the allegations of the alleged mastermind of this plot in a few days. They are surely very extensive. But the inspectors hope to resolve them in a few months and ratify the highest penalty imposed in this city on an individual for these practices. Furthermore, the inspectors themselves warn, the investigations remain open, they will issue new sanctions to all those involved, they will look for more irregular accommodation, they will try to create new fines to further tighten the siege on the alleged mastermind of all this… Most likely, that the matter is referred to administrative litigation. It remains to be seen whether suspicions of mobbing ultimately have criminal consequences. In reality this story is still far from over.
