Daniel Somolinos Madrid
Madrid
Updated Tuesday, February 6, 2024-00:03
As if they were real estate agents, there are quite a few accounts on TikTok that are dedicated to showing, in great detail,
empty homes
so that those squatters looking for a new living space
can go for it
.
Using
hastahgs
such as #
OkupasAlPoder
or #
Enganchados
, and with slogans such as "Bank flats all over Madrid, ask around your area", these accounts (some with more than 2,600 followers) move throughout the region: from San Blas to Parla;
from Villaverde to Móstoles passing through Vallecas.
And to give liveliness to their presentations, they accompany the tiktoks with some songs that say: "I want, I can and I feel like it."
Most of these videos are no longer than a minute. In them, these promoters who haggle over legality
walk around the entire property recording every room
, every corner, so that the future tenant knows all the comforts that their new home will offer.
Some of these apartments, by the way, are recently renovated and look in very good condition. There are several rooms,
open plan and equipped kitchens, most with radiators
... and all, as they say, with water and electricity. But quite a few of these ads are accompanied by a premise: "With the keys for now."
In each new post you can read dozens of comments from very "interested" people. "I like it, I need it very urgently," Fernanda said in one. And others, like Camarón,
kept asking for information and prices
. Although these are only revealed privately.
This newspaper has contacted some of these accounts and they have confirmed that they currently have properties available. "
It would cost 1,600 euros
," they report, ending by adding: "
You could be squatting it for three years
or so."
Local locations are also offered, clarifying that these are "without alarm." Even due to the high demand they experience, some accounts
are calling on locksmiths
to get to work and work with them.
Although TikTok brings together the majority of these advertisements, they can also be found on other platforms, such as Facebook, where you can read messages such as: "We are a young couple who have to leave the apartment we are in... If If someone is interested,
we will give you the keys for 200 euros
."
Others go further and directly disseminate tutorials on how to find bank apartments on platforms such as Idealista,
through a series of filters
. Or they tell you what tools to use and how to use them to open a door. "Screwdriver, wrench and a cylinder." There are also private groups or communities in which squatters with tables advise newbies on how to operate: "Try not to leave the house alone until they take your data. When you give it, you can leave in peace... You will get it.
" the trial letter and those stories.
When they come to you, try to appeal. Go to the social worker and
have her play the role of a vulnerable family
so that a judge doesn't throw you out even if they report you."
As police sources point out to this newspaper, some of these accounts
have already been reported
. The same agents were very surprised when the first complaints filed at the Chamberí National Police station arrived. At the moment,
this whole plot is "
being investigated ."
"Many are very well advised, and they know everything. They are recommended to record a video as soon as they arrive, in order to have proof that they have been in the property for more than 48 hours. Others even
go so far as to order food at home. , where their name, time and address appear
, which they later use as proof," police sources told this newspaper.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the coin, the average waiting time to evict squatters in Spain continues to increase. Currently, as shown by the latest data from the General Council of the Judiciary, for the year 2022,
it takes 20.5 months,
including the procedures of the Courts of First Instance and the Provincial Courts.
This means that, on portals such as Idealista, more and more apartments are advertised with "squatters included."
They sell it as a "business opportunity"
, a "good investment", since the price at which these houses are offered drops quite a bit.
The problem that these types of situations present is that potential buyers, mostly young, cannot see the property,
nor can they know the state in which it is located
. They must take the risk of purchasing and then begin the process of evicting the squatters themselves.