Catalonia fulfills its threat and allows from today to legalize squatting with a social rent

This Tuesday, Law 1/2022, of March 3, on the modification of Law 18/2007, Law 24/2015 and Law 4/2016, comes into force to face
housing emergency. Behind this convoluted name, hides what might be defined as great black beast regulations of real estate fundssince in addition to approving a string of measures aimed at curbing rental prices and preventing evictions, it opens the door to legalizing squatting.

Specifically, it is the article 12which extends the obligation to offer a social rental proposal to any executive action derived from the claim of a mortgage debt and to a specific series of eviction demands, among which several cases of “untitled occupation”, that is, without any type of document that proves any right to that home.

Torra challenges the Catalan Constitutional Court and pushes forward with his pro-squatter decree

Ruth Ugalde

The red line that this law crosses is that it goes beyond summoning large funds to offer social rentals to vulnerable households when the contract they had until then ends or the requirement to renew existing ones, and extends this shield to people who lack any title regarding the houses they inhabit. Of course, in some specific cases.

In order for this squatting to be legalized, the dwelling in question must be registered in the registry of empty homes and squatted homes without a qualifying title or be capable of being registered in it, that the squatters prove have entered that home before June 1, 2021that in the last two years they have not rejected any suitable social rehousing option offered by any public Administration and that the municipal services prove their roots and coexistence in the neighborhood environment.

The plenary of the Parliament.

By limiting the date of occupation of the home to June 2021, the rule will not have a pull effectwhich was a real nightmare for the big holders, but even with this wording, compromises the right to private property and, in addition, it does so at a particularly critical moment, just when the parliamentary process of the national housing law begins, which suffered a serious setback with the report of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) that, among other things, put the focus on private property.

The Government of Catalonia wields, within the body of the law that was published yesterday in the Official Gazette, a battery of data on the evolution of the housing market since the financial crisis a decade ago, exhibition aimed at endorsing the social emergency that is lived in this autonomous community and that has been dragging on since then, when thousands of families had to leave their homes because they might not pay the mortgage. A situation that, far from being corrected, has worsened over the years.

The Generalitat estimates that more than 25,895 people have been evicted from their homes each year since the outbreak of the ‘subprime’ crisis in 2008

“The total number of evictions in the period from 2013 to 2019 was much higher than that of the period from 2008 to 2012, and since then it has remained high,” the law states, among other factors, due to “the rise in the price of rents, the increase in access to leases for mortgaged family units following being evicted and the increase in cases of people expelled during the first waves who, given the lack of public alternatives, accessed the empty homes accumulated by financial entities as a result of the thousands of launches without title executed”.

Specifically, the rule ensures that launches increased by 308% —from 3,926 in 2008 to 16,008 in 2013—, and in the period from 2013 to 2019 the total amount always remained above 12,000. In addition, “from 2008 to 2020, at least 135,739 launches have been practiced in Catalonia, which is equivalent to 336,633 people evicted in 13 years —25,895 a year—”, a situation that this law claims to want to correct.

The Constitutional endorses the legality of the tax on empty homes in Catalonia

E.S.

The new law expands the definition of big fork to legal persons with more than 10 homes, while the physical ones remain in 15 homes. Among the differences between one and the other, is the validity of the Obligation to offer social rent in cases of contract termination: five years in the case of individuals, seven in legal entities and 12 in the case of banks and investment funds. The latter, in addition, are obliged to give up their empty homes for seven years.

To guarantee compliance with the law, the Generalitat is going to draw up a register of large legal entity holders with more than 10 homes, with sanctions for those who fail to comply.

This Tuesday, Law 1/2022, of March 3, on the modification of Law 18/2007, Law 24/2015 and Law 4/2016, comes into force to face
housing emergency. Behind this convoluted name, hides what might be defined as great black beast regulations of real estate fundssince in addition to approving a string of measures aimed at curbing rental prices and preventing evictions, it opens the door to legalizing squatting.