To better protect the landlord, the Express Eviction Act, also known as the Anti-Squatting Act, was drafted. It was planned to shorten the time for the restoration of the house. However, the authors also find legal loopholes to continue living at this address, prolonging trials for up to a year. To do this, they use certain types of services, such as ordering products from home, to justify that the squatted house is their home. okuparous (okupas present, okupis in the past tense, future okupos, okupez imperative, okupus conditional) 1Obsolete for the most part, today mainly used in legal language.2The Argentine and Uruguayan voseo prefers the form tú to the present subjunctive. But what happens if someone breaks into your home? The inviolability of the home is a fundamental right of the Spanish Constitution, enshrined in article 18. The disadvantage is if this right also applies to a squatter who uses it to his advantage. That is, even if this house is your property, you cannot loot the squatter`s apartment. So, is squatting legal? On the other hand, after 48 hours, the house becomes the dwelling of the squatter, so the right to the inviolability of the house applies to them. Therefore, it is more complicated to proceed with the eviction, to be able to present the registration or the payment of a receipt. In this sense, no one can search the house without a court order. The judge will agree to summon these individuals who illegally occupied this house.

It is one of the few Spanish verbs that contain a K (since K is not Spanish; other verbs with a K are derived from loan words: bunkerizar, kilometer). The Diccionario de la Real Academia Española officially recognizes okupar and okupa, noting that the spelling error is questionable. [1] Yes, you read the title correctly. Since a few months in our country, ± Catalonia, it is legal for some squatters to take your apartment. We must thank the PSC, the House of Commons and the supporters of independence who govern the Generalitat. Illegal possession of a secondary residence (also known as property theft) is a criminal offence under the Criminal Code. In this context, article 245.2 of the Criminal Code literally stipulates that „anyone who occupies a property, dwelling or building of another other than a dwelling without proper authorization, or stays there against the will of its owner, shall be punished by a fine of three to six months“. It is the punishment for appropriating apartments, that is, for occupying a house. Therefore, for legal reasons, the owner must prove ownership of the house through the courts with a title confirming ownership of the property. On the other hand, it must also be clear that squatters are indeed squatters and that there is no contractual relationship that gives them the right to occupy the property. This is a common printing practice that can get you into legal trouble. In particular, you could be charged with a crime of coercion, as stipulated in Article 172 of the Criminal Code.

Nevertheless, there are flaws in the process that squatters exploit by following a manual distributed by the networks that largely explains the process they follow. First, they are informed about the ownership and registration of the property they wish to occupy, preferably vacant bank houses, which are therefore not someone`s first or second residence. This property is monitored before entering by forcing a door or window; Then the locks are locked to prevent outside access, and after a few hours they are changed, including the door, if it has been damaged during forced entry into the house. If there are valuables inside, they are kept to avoid theft charges if caught within the first 48 hours, during which the rightful owner could still get evicted by the police. Recently, we have heard a lot of enthusiasm in the media about the occupation of squatters in Spain in legal terms, following the measures offered by the government to help the most disadvantaged people get out of this crisis. Any Spanish citizen receiving minimum income assistance for the coronavirus crisis must be registered in the city where they live. From here and after the 48 hours, the first thing to do is to take legal action. Squatters have 5 days to justify their legal stay in this house by a contract. If there is no answer, the judge will order the squatters to agree to the eviction and restoration of the house by the owner.

This can take several months. The squat has become a scourge, reaching about 49 complaints per day in 2021. The reasons for this boom can be many, but among them are the rights that a squatter acquires when he enters a house. Legal loopholes are exploited to the maximum by these offenders, who often contact others in their same situation to proceed in the same way and extend the deportation period as much as possible. This means that no one, not even the owner, can enter the house without a court order authorizing it because the house is considered for legal purposes as the housing of squatters. At the same time, if the prohibition is enforced or the supply is discontinued, the defendant could be the owner. In addition, in the event of non-payment of electricity or gas bills, the owner may be included in a list of defaulting debtors. Although the house is still yours from a legal point of view, it belongs to the squatter as long as you can justify that it is your apartment. When you enter the house, you commit a possible crime of trespassing.

We hope to have resolved some issues regarding the squat in legal terms and if you need help filing a civil or criminal complaint, please do not hesitate to ask us for advice. Okupar is intentionally misspelled to emphasize the difference with OCUPAR; Ocupar simply refers to the occupation of a residence (cf. occupation) and okupar refers to the occupation of an abandoned, uninhabited or unused residence without obtaining the permission of the owner (squat). However, the word is quite nuanced and not entirely synonymous with squat (see Squatting § Spain and Movimiento okupa). In view of this situation, many doubts remain and we want to clarify them today, in particular whether there is a law to evict squatters and what the criminal consequences are. They sold©as a success the law of control of rental prices and the reality with data in hand is that the supply in Barcelona has dropped by 58% because the owners do not want to rent. On the contrary, in Madrid there is no such law and the prices, although still expensive, are slightly lower than in Barcelona and with more supply, the price is regulated. Home restoration processes can be civil or criminal. The first is expulsion due to precarious and summary guardianship over the procession, while the second would be a complaint of usurpation, especially if the occupation was violent. The first, of course, must certify ownership of the house through a lawsuit, which, in the case of admission to treatment, gives way to a process in which, after verification of ownership, the date of eviction is determined.