Selling House in Spain with squatters

Tortosa1

looking for advice on behalf of my parents in their 60’s who have a house in Tortosa Delta de Ebro region of Spain in a rural area which is now in a sorry state after Squatters have taken residence. They have been there a while and the house is now a shell of what it once was. Wondering if there are any companies who purchase properties with squatters at a reduced rate? Any advice greatly received.

theartfullodger

Humbly suggest you ask in a similar forum based in Spain in Spanish.

I did have squatters once in a property I rented out (Scotland), couple and a wee kid. They'd been told by previous actual tenants OK to move in. Went round to see them and explained (polite, calm) authorities wouldn't help rehouse them (I'd talked to them) , and I'd be taking court action and would they kindly move out within an hour.. Tears etc, I went off for 2 hours. Surprisingly they did leave. I felt terrible. probably one of my worst actions. Ho hum, evil landlords eh??

freesha

Is domestic squatting legal or illegal in Spain? That's a good starting point as to what you can do

poseidon1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6655894/selling-house-in-spain-with-squatters

A simple Internet search revealed the following -

https://www.gbabogados.co.uk/what-you-need-to-know-about-spains-new-squatters-law/#:~:text=Once%20the%20court%20confirms%20that,to%20take%20any%20legal%20action.

Respectfully, no UK purchaser is going to acquire a property in this circumstance unless you are virtually giving it away.

As you will see from the above, squatter legislation as changed recently to become a criminal rather than civil matter. Makes sense to explore legal options to regain possession rather than to try and offload to another purchaser burdened with the squatters.

MyRealNameToo

There are always going to be those that will buy a property for the right price. The family of an associate have bought several properties (mainly commercial) with such problems but they know the sort of "guys" that can sort the problem much quicker than the police or courts (the former not often being an option in commercial properties).

Associate is fine but their family, arent generally the sorts you want to be dealing with and will ultimately get you to sell at below what you want to and certainly below what its worth even with the squatter issue.

It's probably worth doing the sums and speaking to those in Spain, realistically in Spanish, as it's very possible sorting the squatter issue will be a better first step. Others that know the market will know if it's then worth doing a basic repair or sold as a project.

brianposter

Did the house happen to have a burglar alarm ?

Herzlos

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81890516#Comment_81890516

I doubt it matters at this stage, but presumably the house has been empty for some time.

Anyway, this certainly sounds like a problem best solved in Spain by someone Spanish. Can you hire a Spanish estate agent equivalent to arrange to sell the house for whatever they can get for it and consider it done? You'll obviously get more if you can sort the squatter issue, but if the house is still empty you'll spend a lot of time and money keeping it secure.

Guna

Spanish court system is much stricter in the last few years and the process of evicting squatters is relatively cheap and fast compared to what it used to be 5 years ago. I suggest going via a solicitor to issue and eviction notice and apply for court order. You can have this sorted in just a few months for under 2k euros.

I didn't even have to go to court, everything was sorted via my solicitor and by the time we showed up with court order, the squatters were already gone which is typically the case anyway. They don't hang around once they have an eviction date set.

brianposter

The burglar alarm does matter. It is apparently much easier to evict squatters if you have an alarm, in that, for some reason it puts the law on your side.