Last week the anti-squatter law proposal was approved in the Catalan parliament. With this regulation, the municipalities can evict the squatters in the event that the owners of the homes are large landlords (who own 10 or more floors) and that they do not take charge of initiating the eviction through the courts. The office Círculo Legal Barcelona assures that this law is good news, but believes that next year they will declare it unconstitutional, given that It should be the Spanish State that approves this regulation since Catalonia is not competent for it.
This regulation gives the city council the power to denounce cases of conflictive occupation, but it will be declared unconstitutional with complete certainty as the Catalan legislator has once again exceeded the limits of his functions, they say from the Círculo Legal Barcelona office.
“The only ones who can file a lawsuit regarding an occupation case are the owners, that is how it is established by state law,” he recalls. Arantxa Goenaga, partner and lawyer of Círculo Legal Barcelona. Therefore, The Spanish State is the only one that can approve regulations of these characteristics to authorize town councils.
“To what extent does a council have the power to request the eviction of private property?” the lawyer questions, adding, “the law is good news, but next year it will be declared unconstitutional; Catalonia is not competent to file legal proceedings of this type, it has once again exceeded its functions”.
Beyond its unconstitutional nature, the expert points out another problem with the text, and that is that this only refers to the homes of large holders, completely ignoring an important part of the squats. “There are many cases of people who have inherited flats, they are unaware that their relatives have died and these houses end up being squatted for years”, he points out.
“In short, what should be done is to create measures to facilitate the eviction, re-establish that it can be through criminal proceedings, establish that the precautionary measures have to be in a short period of time in which they are expelled and that the police can expel the squatters”, concludes Goenaga.