It all started when a lady (let us call her Hanne) returned to her house in Mallorca after a trip and found her occupied by another lady (Siw). Siw claimed to have paid € 3,000 for the rent of the house, although she had lost the receipt …

Hanne called the police, but they could only write a report and send it to the Court. If the owner wanted to recover her property, she had to file a complaint and wait several months for the court to listen to both Hanne and Siw, to decide whether it was indeed true that Siw was occupying the house or she was a tenant.

Even though the recent “express eviction” law reduces the processing time for this type of procedure to no more than one month from the start, the problem is that these are not the only procedures that the courts have to deal with, regrettably. The pandemic and the paralysis of judicial activity during the lock down have not helped to speed up court procedures, far from it, it is quite the contrary.

In view of the fact that this problem has worsened because the occupiers know that many houses are empty due to the pandemic, the Chief Prosecutors of some autonomous communities in Spain such as the Balearic Islands and Valencia have issued an instruction to the police making it clear in which cases they can act and evict immediately, without waiting for the court resolution. The problem is that the law is very diffuse in some aspects; when a family or an underage appears in the house, or they show an invoice, contract or document (even if it is falsified) the police do not take the risk because they could be blame for transgressing the law if they evict the one inside the property, which may be covered by a rental relationship with the landlord, as these rental relationship may even be verbal.

The good news is that, despite the need for an immediate amendment of the law in the Parliament, the prosecutors, with these instructions, are giving legal cover to the police to open the door and evict occupiers immediately in cases where it is clear and it is evident that it is an illegal occupation. These instructions are being very useful in very clear cases.

We trust that the political parties will take note and agree to pass an amendment to the law that clarifies the dark areas of the current law.