Barcelona.Reverse in an eviction practiced on the verge of curfew
Isabel
sells socks on the street to ensure that at home they do not depend only on the little more than 700 euros that her husband charges.
They meet a rent of 235 euros since they could no longer take on a mortgage that climbed to 1,200 euros per month.
His apartment, in
Badalona
, passed from
CAM
to Sabadell and, for about a year, the landlord has been
Promotoria Coliseum
.
It is a subsidiary of
Cerberus
, an international investment fund that acquired some 46,000 properties from Sabadell for 3,430 million euros.
Unaware of the transaction that included the house they have inhabited since 1999, Isabel and her partner carry a minor and a social services report confirms that the shortage overwhelms them: in recent months, they have had to stock up in food banks.
They have months left on their contract, but Promontoria informs them that it will not renew them.
He even proposes to pay them to leave now.
"They offered me 2,000 euros if I left before January. I told them where I was going with that. We asked if they gave us the option to renew or buy, and they answered that we had no option at all," explains Isabel.
Montse
has run into the same refusal of Promontoria to extend the lease of 147 euros.
He beat her in August: "We started sending papers in March. I had just lost my job and had two or three months unemployed. We sent the documentation several times, but we had no response. In October they called us and offered us 3,500 euros if we left the house ".
Montse refused to leave the house for which she was mortgaged in 2005 and in which she accumulated an impossible debt to repay, until she exchanged it for an affordable rent: "Money does not solve anything for me. I could pay the entrance of a flat, but How do I pay the other months? I can't pay 600 or 700 euros a month. My husband earns 1,200 euros and we have four minor daughters. The social worker asked that they make us rent for 10% of my husband's salary, but they turn a deaf ear They told us that if we did not want the 3,500 euros, we would bear the consequences if the law changed, because we could run out of rent. "
The Constitutional Court has pending to examine an appeal of the PP against the decree of the
Generalitat
that extends the obligation to banks and funds to reduce rents also to those who occupy a home since before June 2019 and the social services endorse that they suffer from hardships.
In turn, Catalan law requires affordable rents to be extended for seven years when the hardships that led to it continue.
The
Consumer Agency of
the Generalitat replies that the payment offers of large owners are not illegal if the residents agree to collect them and no coercion is shown, although it clarifies that it is punishable that a rental proposal does not mediate when it comes to a disadvantaged home .
The objective of the disbursement "is not to renew the compulsory social rent", says
Verónica Dávalos
, a lawyer specializing in housing: "It is a very generalized practice with various funds. They offer money to tenants or people in precarious conditions, many are tempted and take it" .
"Accept the money? No way! I've been in that apartment since 2004,"
Latifa
, who lives with her daughter, a law student
, gets upset
, and receives a benefit that does not reach 600 euros.
Although they have not extended his contract, he continues to transfer 184 euros per month to the account where he paid the rent, which was exhausted in the summer.
Promontoria suggested giving him 3,000 euros to leave.
"Economic incentive"
"The offer is always verbal, never written," says
Enric Marín
, from the
Sant Roc som Badalona
platform
, which supports families on the depressed outskirts of Barcelona.
The compensation is presented as an "economic incentive" to pay for the move or the deposit of another home.
It is transmitted by
Solvia
, which manages the properties of Promontoria.
Through the manager, the fund responds that it does not report on particular cases and that, in any case, it takes into account vulnerability indicators.
Different sources agree that some investment funds have bid 5,000, 8,000, 11,000 and up to 15,000 euros in recent years for a domicile to be vacated.
"In many cases they are squats and the investor sees that, even if he pays compensation, he can get a return of 40,000 or 50,000 euros by selling the apartment. It is reprehensible and a monster is fed, because there are those who can resell the key to win 1,000 or 2,000 euros more or squatting another home and waiting to be paid to leave ", warns a lawyer from a large Barcelona city council.
Sant Roc som Badalona also warns that squatting and mafias that take over habitats to do business can be encouraged.
"And people with social rent are left out in the open," emphasizes Marín.
It happens to
Sonia
, who does not know if she will be able to continue in the house for which she was tied to a loan that she replaced with a lease of 138 euros, and also to
Antonia
, with the contract completed since August.
"I would understand it if I didn't pay, but I don't owe anything," emphasizes
Alfonso
, to whom Promontoria will not extend the 120-euro rent for which he exchanged the mortgage.
They don't offer him money: "They say they don't want to sell or rent. I asked that they at least give me a room to be with my son. If they kick us out, we will go back in."
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EconomyThe Catalan administrations do not sanction the lack of social rents that stop evictions
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