Shameful Tenant Tactics To Avoid Eviction

[Humbug]

Okay here is the status update for any Spanish Landlord who might be interested.

Firstly , I need to correct my previous post .

1. The tenant had to hire his own lawyer for the 1st appeal . It seems that free legal aid is not made available for appeals . So he had to use his own money.
2. The tenant decided he would appeal to the Supreme Court of Spain - he fabricated falsely paid invoices for building works done in the interior of the flat up to 10.5k euros (in the month he moved into the flat in 2007).
3. The Supreme Court pushed back his appeal saying they could not accept the appeal unless the tenant had proved he had paid all rent arrears up to date (which he hadn't).
4. Tenant made up some story that he'd paid our rent to some charitable organisation .
5. The Supreme Court ruled that his appeal was to be rejected and allowed the tenant another chance to appeal against their rejection
6. The tenant did appeal , knowing full well that by doing so , the Supreme Court would take over a month to reply because they go on holiday for the whole of August.
7. September arrives and we hear from our Lawyer that the Supreme Court rejected the case and pushed it back to original court that raised the first eviction notice.
8. As soon as that happens the tenant is allowed free legal aid again , so he sacks his current lawyer.
9. The eviction order is fast tracked and we are told the tenant will be evicted in 7 days.
10. 4 days before eviction , the eviction order is suspended by the courts because the tenant has not got legal representation.

So to all you potential Spanish Landlords out there , DO NOT RENT YOUR FLATS!!!!

The current Spanish Court system is institutionally biased towards tenants and provide so many loopholes to avoid eviction. They also provide lots of opportunities for appeals and even 'appeals against appeals' to make you pay extra court and legal fees.

So now we have to wait for the tenant to get legal representation while he still lives rent free in our flat . It has taken since May 2016 to try and evict him so don't believe all this rubbish about quick eviction laws in Spain - its all lies.

[Humbug]

Since my last post dated 26th Sept, here is the update in all its glory :

11. 8 days ago the Courts ordered that a legal aid lawyer support the tenant. That was done!
12. Now today we received notification from the Courts that the tenants lawyer refuses to support the tenant as he wants the lawyer to use yet another 'appeal' process called “recurso de queja”, but the lawyer considers this appeal not viable and does not wish to continue with the case. The period for this appeal has been suspended, and the Court has given the lawyer 10 days to make allegations. The Court will decide what to do; but obviously this issue will delay the eviction for some time.

So here we go again with the Spanish Courts still allowing the tenant the right to delay by appealing against the 'Supreme Court ' procedures for denying his appeal to be considered .

Now isn't my sorry history of events enough proof for all you potential Spanish Landlords to rethink renting your properties to Spanish tenants . The rental market will just keep crashing down the drain and more Spanish people will have no choice but to live on the streets.

[ifv]

Hi Humbug

Thanks for the update. I'm sorry for the predicament you are in. Spanish eviction laws are indeed a joke, as they fail to protect landlords from abusive tenants. I hope everything is sorted out soon and you can recover your property, which I doubt you will want to rent out again.

There are companies that offer a rental insurance for landlords, perhaps this is something to explore in the future if you ever decide to put the property in the rental market again.

Kind regards

[Humbug]

Hi Humbug

Thanks for the update. I'm sorry for the predicament you are in. Spanish eviction laws are indeed a joke, as they fail to protect landlords from abusive tenants. I hope everything is sorted out soon and you can recover your property, which I doubt you will want to rent out again.

There are companies that offer a rental insurance for landlords, perhaps this is something to explore in the future if you ever decide to put the property in the rental market again.

Kind regards

Many thanks .

Here is the current update

13. The Courts have ordered the tenants free legal aid lawyer to provide legal representation.
14. The tenant has instructed the lawyer to appeal against the Supreme Court's decision to not allow his 'original appeal' to be considered (because he hadn't paid the backlog of rent in full). The tenant has claimed that his previous lawyer gave him wrong advice to pay the backlog of rent to a third party organisation and wants the appeal reconsidered.

[Humbug]

Update:

15. Still waiting after 2 months . Tenant living there free of charge, probably still trashing the place or subletting it, while we cannot even enter or view the state of our own property. I've asked abogados what is the internal process used by the Supreme Court before it is even considered for presentation to the Judges , but none of them seem to know. Is it all a secret then? That one cannot even ask the offices of the Supreme Court whether this “recurso de queja” appeal has actually been received into their offices and workstack ? That one cannot even ask which official is dealing with this request or how long it will take for them to say either yes or no that the appeal is invalid .

Why is it so difficult for the Supreme Court admin officers to reply back immediately to say that the tenants appeal is invalid because he didn't pay the outstanding rent ? That there was no error in the process and that his original appeal failed the 'acceptance criteria' for presenting a case to the Supreme Court.

WHY HAS IT ALREADY TAKEN 2 MONTHS ?

[Humbug]

Out of desperation , I have sent a complaint email to the Spanish Minister Of Justice : Dolores Delgado GarcÃ*a

I have advised her that after this court case is over , we will be telling our story to the Spanish Newspapers about how a 'Provincial President' of a Political Party (ie. our tenant) could be given many thousands of euros in free legal aid when he had enough money (ie. 18k) to stop his eviction so that he could raise an appeal. I've asked her whether she thought this was 'Spanish Justice' and why would a Landlord consider renting their properties to Spanish residents.

I have also found out (and I wish the Abogados would actually explain the law more clearly to their clients ) that any outstanding 'Fuel' utility bills are not linked to the property but to the name of the person whose name/NIE is deemed the 'Contract Holder' with the energy company.

Therefore, if the 'contract holder' is in the name of the tenant , then they are legally liable to pay any outstanding fuel bills , not the property owner.

So now us Landlords can use Spanish rules/laws to our own advantage bypassing the poor Spanish legal system to get rid of tenants defaulting on their rent.

1. Contact the energy company and ask for the 'Contract Owner' to be changed to us the 'Landlord'. Give them a copy of the deeds , provide them your NIE, open up a Spanish bank account and complete a direct debit mandate.
2. Then once the contract owner is changed , empty your bank account , cancel the direct debit.
3. Any electricity charges accrued by tenant of flat will not be paid
4. Advise the energy company , that you don't have enough funds to pay the bills because the tenant is not paying the rent.
5. Energy company will cut off the electricity and remove the meter.
6. Tenant will leave the property

Okay the electricity company might delay cutting off the electricity and allow a substantial debt to increase which the landlord will have to pay , plus a hefty re-connection charge. Isn't that better than paying tens of thousands of euros to the Spanish legal system that will drag out for years (in our case over 4yrs at a total cost of 24k euros in lost salary due to travel back and forth to Spain, court costs , etc etc)?

I cannot envisage the electricity company allowing debts increasing into the thousands before cutting off the supply.

The above seems to be the easiest way to get rid of tenants who default on their rent while still being allowed free legal aid to appeal and delay eviction for years.

Time for landlords to fight back

[Humbug]

Still nothing after nearly 3 months .

I have complained direct to the Minister of Justice in Spain 'Dolores Delgado Garcia' and also direct to the Supreme Court offices.

Have now heard that there is a new Minister Of Justice 'Juan Carlos Campo' who has assumed office on the 13th Jan 2020 (sigh!).