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ARCHIVED - Two people arrested in Spain for pretending to be squatters and making owners pay for them to leave
It’s a good idea to only use anti-squatting companies you can trust in Spain, because some may be fraudulent
Two people have been arrested and three others are being investigated for their part in a series of ‘express evictions’ detected in the Spanish provinces of Alicante, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Valencia.
The alleged suspects, one of them the owner of the company under investigation, are accused of simulating false occupations of homes by squatters so that the homeowners would contract their services to ‘evict’ the person.
Squatting, or ‘okupa’ as it is known in Spanish, is not uncommon in Spain, and it can take many months for police and the courts to evict illegal squatters. That’s why some private companies offer professional squatter prevention and eviction services, but in this case the anti-okupa company turned out to be a fraud.
The case, codenamed Operation Savita, began in August 2021 when police learned that in a house in the town of Villajoyosa in Alicante’s Marina Baixa area, an anti-squatter door had been installed by one of the ex-tenants of the house.
Police found out there was a conflict between the tenant and the owner of the house over the validity of the rental contract. Apparently, when the rightful occupant returned to the house, he found a door specially installed to prevent squatting. Initial enquiries linked these events to a security company specialising in the eviction of squatters.
The owner of the property stated that he had hired a company to mediate evictions, but when he arrived at the house, he found a person other than the tenant, a woman who claimed that the tenant had allegedly sold her the keys to the house, telling her that it belonged to the bank.
After proving to her that he was the owner of the flat, the owner signed a private contract in which the alleged ‘squatter’ voluntarily agreed to leave the property.
From the investigations carried out, similarities were observed between this event in Villajoyosa and another in La Orotava (Santa Cruz de Tenerife), which took place in June 2021. On this occasion, between the owner of the property and the alleged squatter, who was the same as in the property in the town of Alicante, there was also a private document that agreed the voluntary and immediate abandonment of the property.
The same situation occurred in a house in Sagunto (Valencia), where the break-in was carried out by the same woman who was part of the previous actions under investigation.
The woman who allegedly occupied the houses, aged 30 and of Spanish nationality, was arrested in Arroyomolinos, while the agents arrested the owner of the company under investigation, a 36-year-old Spaniard, in Barcelona.
Anyone who is unlucky enough to have to evict squatters from their property is advised to use a reputable and registered squatter prevention and protection company.
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