That morning, recently, the ceilings of this apartment at number 16 Giralt el Pellisser Street woke up dripping. It’s not the first time. Firefighters and police from Barcelona City Council arrive at this property in the Sant Pere, Santa Caterina i la Ribera neighborhood around nine in the morning.
The affected neighbors tell them that the upper floor is apparently occupied, that the new owners of the property sent a kind of false squatters to make their lives miserable, so that they would all leave at once and set up a bunch of apartments in their homes. tourist. The views of this somewhat battered property for a long time are the colorful roofs of the Santa Caterina market. Frictions with the supposed occupiers are daily.
The firefighters verify that the door of the apparently occupied apartment is open, that the floor is waterlogged and cluttered with empty plastic bottles, that there is no one there. “There is evidence that the water leaks have been caused expressly by someone,” says the fire brigade report, “throwing water through the floor and causing leaks and leaks.”
Furthermore, the apparently occupied apartment does not have running water. There are also plenty of bottles full of urine there. “It seems a clear case of real estate mobbing and works without the relevant permits,” the report highlights in the causes section. The firefighters also verify that the building has four other previous actions by the force related to unlicensed works and unrepaired structural damage.
“The other day we put a camera on the landing, to have evidence,” add some neighbors of the property. “The false squatters arrived after the City Council suspended the works that the new owners started.” “One day we received a WhatsApp from the previous ones saying that they had sold the building and five minutes later the new ones showed up!” “They offered us 3,000 euros to leave immediately, they told us that the works would begin soon, that the best thing we could do was leave.” “We still have tenants in three homes. An older woman and couple left. Other floors were already empty.” “They crushed us with brutal works that cannot be done with people living on the farm.” “They also made offers to us in bad faith, so that we could confront each other.” “But we have our lives made here.” “We would have to leave Barcelona. And the kid changes institutes.” “My mother is old, and if she left me…” “We have been in the neighborhood for many years, do we have to leave so they can set up tourist apartments?” “The surrounding farms were emptied, and now only tourists come there.” “In the announcements of the works carried out in 14, the same headlines appear as in those of our building.”
Municipal sources confirm that the City Council detected illegal tourist activities on the neighboring properties, and also works without permission. “At the moment – there are many in the Consistory -, disciplinary proceedings and termination orders are underway on tourist apartments that operate without a license.”
The sale of 16 Giralt el Pellisser took place at the beginning of April, according to the deeds. The price of 1.6 million euros denotes that it was an opportunity, that the property already had a few problems. In fact, it had not passed the technical building inspection. The purchase was formalized by two people. The offices of the company that took over most of the building are located a few blocks away. They are packed with suitcases, with their check-in tags. Tourists keep coming and going, dragging their luggage. On the walls, blackboards with a multitude of addresses. At the moment the administrator is not there, but an employee calls him on the phone. She abruptly responds to La Vanguardia that she has nothing to do with 16 Giralt el Pellisser, that she is not an owner or anything like that, that she is not interested in continuing this conversation.
After an hour, one of the tenants of the property receives a call from a very kind person who claims to represent investors who have already paid the corresponding deposit to take over the property, who have to talk, who are willing to negotiate, who They are aware of how bad they had it for so many months…
The neighbors wait on guard for this operation to materialize (or not). “We have been living in hell for ten months.”
