Squatting is a practice tied to a radical social movement; hence it is written with a k, which reflects in its letters a will to transgress.
The Housing Law does not sponsor this movement, but it does bring some amendments regarding evictions and usurpation of housing. Despite being very subtle, almost insignificant, some political speeches have taken advantage of the occasion to stir up the concerns of the owners and capture votes.
Spanish jurisprudence does not recognize squatting as such, but rather defines two independent crimes related to the invasion of property: usurpation and trespassing.
And they are quite different from each other.
Breaking and entering occurs when someone breaks into your house, which is your actual residence. It is a crime punishable by up to four years in prison and a fine, if it is carried out with violence, and it represents a minority of complaints related to property.
But breaking and entering has little to do with the squatter, with k, whose intention would be to seize disused, empty properties, especially from banks or vulture funds, to live or meet or for cultural purposes.
The crime that best suits the squatter, then, is usurpation, that is, entering and staying in an uninhabited property, without the owner’s authorization. And it also has prison sentences, which can reach 2 years if it involves violence and intimidation, or a fine of three to six months if it is done peacefully.
The new Housing Law qualifies the eviction procedure in cases of usurpation of housing without violence or intimidation (someone occupies, without authorization, an empty property that is not the owner’s residence) only when the occupant is in a situation of accredited dependency legally.
Only in these cases will the responsibility be transferred to the autonomous community in question, so that it adopts “the corresponding protection measures” in terms of housing, such as finding a housing solution for the occupant. The Law does not specify anything else in this regard.
Another novelty that this norm has incorporated into the Civil Procedure Law has to do with evictions, a procedure that is often carried out for reasons other than squatting.
But it does not interfere in all evictions, but those that meet all these conditions:
Only, then, in this specific case, the demand to recover the home will not be accepted if the owner does not demonstrate that he has applied a conciliation or intermediation procedure, such as going to the social services in housing matters or considering existing aid and subsidies. to that effect.
If such requirement is accredited, the eviction will proceed as usual.
To guarantee communication between the court and the social services to detect cases of vulnerability and find housing solutions for those affected, the terms for suspension of evictions are extended, which are now set at two months (if the owner is a natural person) and four months (if the owner is a legal person).
A last amendment makes it mandatory to include the exact day and time that the occupant’s release will take place in all eviction cases. Thus, the State Security Corps and Forces will not be able to act by surprise.
Perception does not always match reality. This is, at least, the hypothesis of Verificat, the first fact-checking platform in Catalonia, which has analyzed the data on squatting in Spain after a request for transparency to the General Secretary of the Department of the Interior.
The data shows an increase in these crimes in the Catalan capital since 2005 —they have multiplied by eight—, but in 2022 they had decreased by 16% compared to 2019.
The city of Barcelona concentrated last year close to 8.8% of the total complaints related to the usurpation of housing and burglary in the entire State. Of these, 97.8% corresponded to empty buildings.
