The Popular Party considers that the draft Housing Law agreed by the Government with ERC and Bildu and that next Thursday will be approved by the Plenary of Congress, is a “bargain for squatters” because, by dint of imposing conditions, it does not but rather “make it difficult for the owners to recover their properties.”
The popular will vote on Thursday against the law and, in addition, they promise to end the bicoca that, according to them, supposes for those who illegally occupy a property, as soon as they govern. At the moment, they leave the door open to the presentation of an appeal of unconstitutionality.
In the PSOE, for their part, they maintain that the amendment they have agreed with their parliamentary partners seeks to “defend vulnerable families” while trying to “not harm the owners.” In this sense, they differentiate between the squatting that is colloquially known as a kick in the door, whose tenants with the new law may be expelled “within a maximum period of 48 hours”, from that of those who stop paying their rents for economic reasons.
For his part, the PP campaign spokesman, Borja Sémper, who has reproached the president for “after five years” in La Moncloa “has not done anything or fulfilled his promises in relation to housing.” “His promise marker is at 93,000 homes but this commitment is even being questioned from within the PSOE and from within the Government itself. Sánchez seems to have amnesia and believes that the rest of us also have it,” he stated before stressing: “The bargain of the squatters will end as soon as Feijóo is president of the Government.”
Sémper has referred with these statements mainly to the transactional amendment agreed by the PSOE with Unidas Podemos, ERC and various minority formations, which imposes conditions and requirements on those owners who wish to recover their illegally occupied homes or those inhabited by tenants who stop paying . The conditions include the obligation for the owner to certify whether or not he is a large holder, whether or not the occupants use his property as a habitual residence and whether or not they are people in a situation of vulnerability.
Sémper has denounced that in the text of the bill “not a single measure is incorporated to stop illegal squatting” which, according to the data he has provided, “has increased by 50% since Sánchez is president.” According to the calculations of the popular there are about 50 squats a day.
The bill, they maintain in the PP, “causes enormous legal uncertainty” and also does not combat a phenomenon – that of squatting – that “endangers the safety of people and property.”
The popular ones propose to evict the squatters in 24 hours and toughen the penalties against them; create advisory offices in town halls for owners who are faced with this problem and set up a 24-hour telephone line that allows the Administration to act immediately.
Sémper has emphasized that his party “differentiates well” between rent defaults and mortgage debts caused by the crisis and squatting. “The cheeky squatter is one thing and the one who is having a bad time and needs help is another,” however, regarding these last cases he has not specified concrete proposals.
The popular spokesman has insisted that, when the PP governs “not one of the nonsense of this government will remain standing, nor any of its legislative bungling.” And he added: “We will tell what we want to repeal and what we want to modify and how we are going to do it.”
In the PSOE they remember that they were the ones who proposed that the squatters could be evicted in 48 hours against the criteria of their partners in La Moncloa after speaking with experts, affected people and institutions that had expressed their “concern” about this matter. The Government of Castilla-La Mancha, chaired by Emiliano García-Page, was the one that promoted an autonomous initiative to force a debate in Congress in order to toughen the legislation.
According to the amendment agreed with the purple formation and the parties that usually support the Executive in Congress, the plaintiff who initiates procedures for the recovery of his property must “certify” whether or not he is a large holder and whether or not the occupants use the property as habitual residence. In the case of owners with more than 10 properties, they will also have to indicate whether or not the defendant “is in a situation of economic vulnerability” through an evaluation carried out by the regional and local services and with the prior authorization of the occupant himself.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project