The governing party PSOE has put forward an amendment to the current legislation on squatting. After the change, a judge will be able to approve the removal of squatters 48 hours after the property’s owner demands it.
It applies in cases where someone has entered another person’s property and in cases where they have broken in directly. The opposition, through Pablo Casado (Partido Popular), put forward a similar proposal back in 2020, where the intention was that people should leave within either 24 or 48 hours.
Spain’s legislation and the way the police enforce the rules have been updated and changed in recent years. This is to make it easier to remove people from properties they have broken into. The Spanish constitution’s ”right to decent housing” for everyone in Spain is the source of the problem in Spain.
Despite the media’s focus on individual cases, the squatting of ordinary homes is not common in Spain. Most often it is repossessed properties taken over by banks that are occupied, sometimes by the original owner of those same homes. In other cases there is a dispute between former tenants or family members where one party ends up as a ”squatter”. In the big cities there are occupiers acting on ”ideological” motives. This has been seen a great deal in Barcelona.
The problem has, however, grown during the pandemic. This is due to increased poverty and to little supervision of homes that normally stand empty. It was seen that during the pandemic the Spanish authorities eased the otherwise firm hand they have wanted to show on the subject of squatting in Spain.
Information taken from Spaniaposten 28/09/2022