Daniel J. Ollero Madrid
Madrid
Updated Wednesday, March 20, 2024-22:47
«
My car is behind this wall
.
"I'm going to make a hole and I'll show you," Fernando Prieto says, hammer in hand, in front of his garage.
At first glance, it is an ordinary parking wall in the basement of the building.
However, upon closer inspection, the wall is bulging outward and the paint is fresh.
After a few hits with the sledgehammer,
the hole reveals a brand new white BMW
that was completely sandwiched next to a trailer.
"
They put up the wall in a single night
and, days later, they painted it to look like a normal garage wall," he explains.
"On this occasion I left the car slightly outside the line so that they wouldn't wall it up again, but they made the wall a little bulging and they did it again," Fernando now with a resigned smile.
A delirious succession of events in which there is still a twist in the script: "
the first time, after walling up my car, they made a hole in the side
because I imagine they needed to get in for something... so they made the hole and then "They covered it up."
The scene, witnessed by GRAN MADRID under the careful surveillance of a security camera that points specifically towards this space, is astonishing.
In fact, what happens on
7 Marqués de Lema Street
seems to be the result of a
Delirium Tremens
by the scriptwriters of
La que se cerca
.
The car was submerged in a single night.EM
In this neighborhood community,
a huge canvas sign secured to the wall through a chain
of thick links and a padlock welcomes owners, tenants and visitors.
A canvas on which
10 pages of a court ruling are printed
that those who control the building wanted to place as a triumph: «It is an absolute shame.
I've been here for 50 years, I've seen everything and
this is the most corrupt building in Spain
," says Milagros, an octogenarian recovering from lung cancer who cannot contain her tears at the helplessness she feels.
The poster is simply a milestone in a war that began in 2019, when when faced with renovations to face the Technical Inspection of the Building, the neighbors were presented with three quotes: one of them from
a supposed company that did not even It is registered in the commercial registry
[Codet Reformas y Rehabilitaciones] and two others are linked to the same builder who, curiously, had been a partner of the Community's property manager until June 2019.
Since then, a neighborhood meeting has not been held again, they have tried to oust the president and fire the property manager by calling extraordinary meetings and using judicial means.
However, due to the appeals filed by the administrator, the protection provided by the president and the delays caused by the pandemic,
they will have to continue the same until January 2025, which is when a new trial is scheduled to begin
. The neighbors hope it is definitive.
«
The owners are mostly single women
, already pensioners, who have worked all their lives to buy a small apartment of between 35 and 45 square meters [the size of the vast majority of these apartments] and now the pension is not enough for them.
What they are looking for is to suffocate them financially so that they sell poorly
," says a neighbor who prefers not to give her name "for
fear of reprisals
," among which she lists insults, unjustified invoices or including them on the list of defaulters.
"Fear" is a word that neighbors constantly repeat.
They are afraid of the doormen, who despite being employees of the neighborhood community, are perceived as a kind of body of repression and surveillance
at the service of the president and the property manager.
"The doorman will have already seen us meeting with you and will have called the administrator," explains a neighbor in the group of 20 people who have set up on the street to attend to GRAN MADRID.
"
The doormen don't let us mail
other neighbors so they know what the president and the administrator are doing," says another owner who has tried to organize the opposition.
Marqués de Lema 7 is a unique building
in Chamberí.
Practically an experiment in transition.
A builder and a hotelier conceived it as a hotel, the hotelkeeper died and the builder then decided to convert it into a building of small apartments with numerous common areas,
spaces and commercial premises owned by the Community of Neighbors
so that the owners would have to face few expenses. .
However, decades later, the reality has resulted in the owners having to face
bills that range between 400 and more than 800 euros per month
between community fees, ITEs, extras and payments sent by the property manager's company, which The neighbors insist that "it is not registered" although the company's social media profiles insist that they are registered.
Astronomical expenses that neighbors assure are "not justified," that they are "completely random" and that "they are often duplicated."
Nobody knows what criteria is followed.
"
I have sent three emails to Amero and they have not responded
," Milagros says indignantly.
A sign placed by the administrator, on which there is a printed sentence and secured with a chain and a large padlock, greets the neighbors.
This retiree defines the building as "
the house of gossip
" and does not stop crying inconsolably from her helplessness.
"I've seen them in all colors, we've had everything,
even ETA safe houses in the 80s
, but I can't take it anymore."
A building with tradition that was also a reference for Madrid nightlife, where the legendary Coppola nightclub was located.
"Here," another veteran interrupts, "
they've even filmed porn here
."
This newspaper tried to contact Fincas Amero repeatedly without receiving a response.
12 hours after Fernando punched a hole in the wall
to reveal his sandwiched car, the hole was repaired.