Owners and lessors of flats or bedrooms in Majorca are asking their tenants what pay up to 500 euros to be able to register at your home. This completely abusive and illegal practice is denounced by the organizations Doctors of the World, caritas and Red Cross, that every day they find more cases of this type.
Teresa Rieraresponsible for the Cáritas Housing program, explains that one of the basic problems is that “since there is a lack of access, rooms are sublet. Since the prices are so high, what he who rents the apartment does is sublet rooms to be able to pay the rent, “he details. “The rental contract usually states that the apartment cannot be sublet. So, when the tenant rents out a room, he does not let the person who enters to live register so that the owner does not realize that he is doing it, “he points out. It is a fish that bites its own tail.
The case of living in a rented room
From Cáritas they confirm that the biggest problem of registration is held by people who are in the situation described above, namely, those who reside in a room sublet. “Given the fact of not being able to get the register, there are people who take advantage of it and what they do is sell the registration. There are cases of tenants who They have come to pay 300, 350 or even 500 euros“. The other practice reported by users of these three social entities is that when they rent a room, landlords increase 50 or 100 euros the renta monthly if they want the room with registration.
These NGOs warn that these abuses have skyrocketed and worsened. “This is happening in Palma and also in the towns. For this reason, we ask that registration in the town halls be made more flexible, especially outside of Palma. Registration is a very important process because it is the gateway to other basic services such as health cardthe card for the bus or the schooling of the kids. If you don’t register, you are excluded from these basic services, “he says.” Then there are other public resources for which they ask you for at least six months in the register, “says Riera.
Request a visit from an inspector
“Right now it is easier to register a person who is on the street than people who are in a house or room,” he denounces. “The only possibility that users who live in rooms often have is request that an inspector go to your home to prove that you reside there. What happens is that they take a long time. In addition, users fear that they will be kicked out if the owner or landlord realizes that they have registered there without their permission.”
Regarding the profile of people who find themselves in this situation, “before the majority were migrants, but now there is everything.”
“With the registration, there are a number of people who are doing business with fear and insecurity especially of vulnerable migrants in an irregular situation”, stresses Juana Lozano, regional coordinator of the Red Cross. “We found that they would rather give up their registration rights than not have a room,” she says. “It is important to know that Palma is one of the provincial capitals that is also registering in cases of people living in sublet rooms and other cases,” she says. “But these registrationsfor which you do not have to pay anything to the lessor, they are held back by ignorance and fear“. Lozano recalls that landlords cannot charge for the padrón, they break the law. “What happens is that there is a lack of legal tools to prosecute these practices because it is a new phenomenon”.
suicidal behaviors
For Amanda Gutiérrez, coordinator of Severe Exclusion, Migrations and Right to Health of Metges del Món, “one of the municipalities that puts up more barriers for this type of registration is that of Inca. Palma does try to comply with the law, but for example when it comes to a person who lives on the street they must do so Through the UMES of Creu Roja, we have detected that if they go alone to ask for the census they say no”. On the other hand, the people who live in a room who want to be registered, if an inspector has not gone to their house after three months, they are automatically registered. “What happens is that they remain three months in limbo and without rights. We have asked the regional government do something along these lines“. Gutiérrez points out another case that is “quite common”. people who live in the same address with someone who collects the Minimum Vital Income and this is the owner or the lessor. They deny them the register because they say they could lose the aid“. “We have tried to mediate with landlords in this type of issue, always without results. And the people who live in these types of conditions do not dare to report it because the first thing they are looking for is a safe place and many times they are with minors in their care.” Finally, the coordinator warns of cases of very desperate users and with suicidal behavior due to the housing problem. “We have two health psychologists for the prostitution project and people with this psychological profile come to them and they also take care of them,” she concludes.