Shameful Tenant Tactics To Avoid Eviction

Hi All

Just to show how tenants can manipulate the legal system at the expense of Landlords:

1. Our letting agents let my father's Spanish flat out to a tenant in 2008. They didn't draft a written contract (like they did for previous tenants) and was verbal.
2. Tenant paid rent for over 2 years, including Comunidad
3. Tenants mother (president of block ) found out that the deeds on our flat had not been officially amended. Told her son to stop paying us rent until deeds changed.
4. Our letting agent went out of business.
5. Taken us many years to track down the original agent who sold us the flat (we have a contract of purchase dating back to 1979). He was willing to attend court to prove we were the owners since 1979 and then got the deeds amended to my father's name . This was done in Feb 2016
6. Our lawyer then tried to evict tenant as if there was no written contract - lost that case - our lawyer made a mistake - cost us £4.5k court costs. Tenant was using a 'free-legal aid' lawyer at the time.
7. We then tried to evict the tenant for non-payment of rent - statute of limitations meant we could only go back 5 years - so tenant has got away scot-free not paying 5 years rent (18k euros). Won the case and judge gave a date last year for formal eviction , that the tenant would have to pay 18k up front before lodging any appeal.
8. On the day of eviction, the tenant paid 18k to the court and lodged an appeal (still using a free legal aid lawyer). Huh!!!
9. The date of judgement was yesterday and we were waiting for our lawyer to advise us about the outcome. Now we hear that on that same day, the tenant made a formal complaint about his free-legal aid lawyer asking for a replacement . This meant by law the appeal judges could not deliver a judgement until a new free legal representative has been hired for our tenant.
Therefore ,judgement and possible eviction date delayed yet again (maybe another 6 months - I don't know).
10. Our lawyer is lodging a formal complaint against tenant for 'contempt of court' . Hoping that the court sees sense and will agree that the tenant is 'playing the system' . How can he still be getting free legal aid after paying 18k ?

Now you can see how the law in Spain is terribly biased towards the tenant no matter how dishonest they are. We think the tenant is subletting our flat and making an absolute fortune on the side while also getting free legal aid to use every trick in the book to delay his eviction (probably also going to trash our flat before we finally get rid of this scumbag).

Be warned, letting out your flat in Spain isn't worth all the hassle and pain.

For anyone interested here is the summary update

1. Went through courts to evict tenant for non-payment of rent.
2. Courts decided in our favour - judge instructed tenant to pay 18k euros before he could lodge an appeal.
3. Tenant paid 18k the day before the eviction and raised an appeal.
4. 4 months later , the court of appeal judged in our favour again - gave the tenant 20 days to appeal to the 'Courts Of Madrid' .

Now awaiting to find if this tenant will be given even more 'free legal aid' by the Spanish state to appeal to the 'Courts of Madrid' . If they do agree to fund the appeal , the case could take 18 months - 2 years before a decision is made.

So there we have it. The Spanish state offering free legal aid to tenants to live 'rent free' at the expense of the landlord.

If the State does provide free legal aid to allow this tenant to appeal to the highest courts in Spain , then it will make a mockery of these new 'quick eviction' laws. It would mean there would be no point in landlords using legal means to evict the tenants .

Seems that the Spanish courts have failed landlords who have used the correct legal processes. What we have now is a biased system favouring tenants who do not pay their rent , can trash the property and run up sky high utility bills for the landlords to pay later. The state even pays free legal aid for them to use the appeal process to delay eviction, leaving landlords no other option but to use 'alternative' ways to get rid of this tenant. I think there are some companies that offer these alternatives services in Spain (using their 'negotiation' skills) and maybe this is the quickest and best way going forwards.

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.

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.

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

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 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

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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.

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 ?

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

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!).

Hello Humbug

I wouldn't put too much hope in the letter you wrote to the former Spanish Minister of Justice. On the other hand, if your tenant happens to be a provincial leader of a political party, as you state, then perhaps you shouldn't wait until the court case is over to tell the Spanish press about it. Newspapers are eager to publish stories that involve politicians, especially those that don't share their ideology. If Spanish justice isn't working for you, other less orthodox means might.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ifv

Hello Humbug

I wouldn't put too much hope in the letter you wrote to the former Spanish Minister of Justice. On the other hand, if your tenant happens to be a provincial leader of a political party, as you state, then perhaps you shouldn't wait until the court case is over to tell the Spanish press about it. Newspapers are eager to publish stories that involve politicians, especially those that don't share their ideology. If Spanish justice isn't working for you, other less orthodox means might.

---

Yes, I've had no response from Dolores Garcia and finding the email address of the new Minister of Justice is proving problematic.

Now 1st Feb 2020 and we find something even more bizarre and unbelievable.

I found a website for the Supreme Court of Spain where one can complete an online request to confirm the status of the appeal . It asked for all sorts of information and 'appeal case' references and court registration numbers etc. I informed my solicitor and he couldn't find any 'court references' so he checked where the defendants lawyer sent the appeal .

He noticed that they sent the 'recurso de queja' to the WRONG COURT !!!!!! They sent it to the 'Audience Provincial ' instead of the 'Supreme Court' .

So we have been waiting for 3 months for nothing!!!!!

Why did the defendant send it to the wrong court? Probably to cause more confusion and delay of his eviction.

Why didn't the Audience Provincial Court immediately return the appeal back to the defendents lawyer via the procurador?

So here we go again , the defendent had 5 days to appeal against the last Supreme Court rejection so I'm assuming that the deadline has passed and he has no other forms of appeal.

The eviction order has been raised again and I am expecting the tenant to sack his free-aid lawyer again so that the eviction cannot be processed (ie. another 2 week delay).

14th Feb 2020

The court have accepted the eviction order and will pass it for injunction to the SCNE in Denia. But here is the joke part!

It says that the tenant has 5 days from the date of this order (11th Feb) to APPEAL !!!! Yes 'APPEAL ' even after he has already failed in his original appeal and also failed in 'his appeal against the rejection of his original appeal'.

So we know what happens now :

1. The Procurador will not be able to find a lawyer that represents the tenant (because he's probably dismissed him again).
2. The court will stop the eviction process and give the tenant 10 days to find another free legal aid lawyer or instruct one to represent him.
3. After a lawyer is established to represent the tenant, the notification of eviction will be submitted to him by the procurador giving him 5 days to APPEAL.
4. The lawyer has no other legal means to appeal against the eviction
5. After 5 days , a date for eviction will be set
6. SCNE Denia will then try and evict the tenant.
7. On the date of eviction the tenant has the opportunity to use many tactics to cause a suspension.
8. The eviction might not go ahead and a new date set (takes about 4-6 weeks via the SCNE).

3rd March 2020

An eviction order was raised to evict the tenant today but was suspended by the Courts yesterday evening (no reason given).

The tenants lawyer has written a petition to the courts claiming 'Social Vulnerability' for his client , medical ailments , social exclusion , not having enough time to find another apartment or move his possessions.

The tenant has also dismissed his free legal aid lawyer again (for the 3rd or 4th time ).

So now you see how the Spanish Court system works (or doesn't work ) to enforce justice !!!

So even after failing in his appeal to the highest court in Spain , the local courts still allow the tenant leeway to continue to avoid eviction .

Still nothing from the Courts to explain why the eviction was suspended .

Update :

Apparently the new laws dated 6th March 2019 regarding tenancy eviction can be applied retroactively .Therefore any landlords who have an ongoing legal court case trying to evict a tenant 'using the existing Spanish laws before the 6th March 2019' will have effectively wasted their money and time . The tenant can claim 'Social Vulnerability ' and delay the eviction and no-one can tell me the specifics of how this new law will affect a legal eviction date.

This is what I have said to our lawyer:

Can you please confirm that you are 100% certain that this new tenancy law dated 6th March 2019 can be applied retroactively for leases signed before 6th March 2019?

I have attached what I think is the official bulletin stating the new laws and it relates to TITULO 111 article 5. Does it say that this new law can be applied retroactively?

How can the legal system apply a new law to affect an existing case (our case started in 2018)? It doesn't make any sense from any legal standpoint because how can one pick and choose which of these new laws can be applied retroactively (isn't it all or none)?

If we have a legal right to appeal against the Court's decision please advise what that process is, what the cost will be and a deadline for doing this?

Do we have a right to ask the Court to compensate us for all the legal costs/time we have wasted using their existing eviction laws (which are now rendered ineffective because of this new law)?

Apparently this new law states a maximum delay for 1 month ? What exactly does that mean?

Does it mean :

a. That we must wait a maximum of 1 month for the Social Services to reply back?
b. Does it mean that they can reply back (within this 1 month) saying they need 1 year to provide alternative support and accommodation for our tenant? And if that is the case , must we wait another year without rent or being able to access or sell our property , or have the tenant run up massive utility debts before finally evicting him?
c. Does it mean that the date of eviction will be 1 month?


Your Spanish laws make little sense to me because they are so imprecise and arbitrary?

We need clear and specific guidance on how these new laws are going to effect our case.

Looks like the tenant has planned this very craftily . He has said he damaged his hand at work and in a legal dispute over whether it is work related or not. He's on unpaid leave and hasn't received any income since last August.

He has provided Social Services with documentation to prove the above and convinced the Social Worker that he is vulnerable , therefore that's why the eviction has been suspended.

We don't have a clue what powers the Social Services will have to coerce Judges to suspend evictions for long periods which could financially ruin honest landlords. We don't have a clue what Judges might decide on a personal whim with regards the date and time they choose for an eviction.

So now, because we have no definitive laws that can define an eviction deadline , the landlord is left in limbo about what may happen in a months time . This law is rubbish, ill defined and utterly useless in a court of law. In fact , Landlords may as well stop renting their properties, let the rents rise and let the government panic over the escalation in homelessness in Spanish towns .

Latest update:

Since the Courts recommenced work just over a month ago , our solicitor filed a request to the judge for another eviction date. Remember that the law states that if a tenant is deemed vulnerable by the Social Services (ie. the tenant claimed he hurt his hand and could not work since Aug 2019) the eviction will be suspended for a max of 1 month. Obviously that was several months ago due to the Cov19 virus lockdown and all legal processes that got caught in 'mid-stream' had to be rewound back to the start again.

So we are now awaiting this SCNE body to confirm another eviction date.

We fully expect the tenant to try and delay the process even further by maybe claiming that the Social Services haven't been able to assist him or that he needs more time to find another flat because of the COV19 issues, or that he is self isolating , etc etc.

In the meantime , we have worked out that the tenant owes us over 11k euros in court/lawyer costs and backdated rent (+ incremental yearly rent increase + compounded interest).

We also found (too late now) the email from our last solicitor back in 2016 informing us that the tenants contacted them and offered 40k euros for the flat . Amazing! He didn't pay rent for 10 yrs (ie. 36k euros + interest) and then offered our own unpaid rent to try and buy our property .

So the journey to evict this tenant continues , 4 years on and still counting.

TO ALL THOSE PEOPLE OUT THERE PLANNING TO RENT A PROPERTY IN SPAIN - DON'T DO IT!! ITS NOT WORTH ALL THE HASSLE . BUY PROPERTY IN ANOTHER COUNTRY.

Just an update for anyone interested :

1. The tenant still remains in our flat and not paid any rent for 2.5 yrs
2. We have processed the eviction request again after the maximum 1 month period that allowed him to get help from the Social Services.
3. SCNE are supposed to confirm an eviction date but have taken 2 months and nothing received yet ( this seems to be a delaying tactic ordered by the State or local government )
4. Meanwhile , the tenant raised another petition to suspend eviction process , claiming vulnerability due to COV-19 .
5. This has been rejected by the court so eviction process continues but have given the tenant 5 days to appeal against their decision.

So this madness goes on and on...........

Another update:

The tenant has now raised an appeal against the decision made by the court to reject his previous petition . The court are now deliberating on the petition and haven't yet decided to suspend the eviction . In fact we haven't even seen a copy of the tenants 'appeal'.

So here we go again ........tenant raises a petition , court decides and give 5 days to appeal , tenant raises a petition against the courts decision on the 5th day deadline, court decides again and gives 5 days for tenant to appeal , tenant raises a petition again on the 5th day deadline , court decides .... and so on ... and on ......and on.........

The petition about COV19 vulnerability was rejected

The SCNE suddenly told our lawyer on XXXXX that the eviction would take place on the XXX at around 09:00 . This meant that the tenant wouldn't have time to raise a petition against the eviction and delay things .

This took our own lawyer by surprise because he had to attend a trial on Tuesday and therefore couldn't accompany the court officials and procurador to carry out the eviction.

Tuesday arrives and we are informed on Wednesday that the eviction had been suspended . Apparently the court officials had problems finding our flat using the directions that was given to them by my brother who had visited the flat 4 years ago.

We had provided the correct outside views of our flat with arrows pointing to the exact location (ie. to the balcony of our flat) but we had provided the incorrect street door number to access the block and stairwells . Therefore the officials decided that they weren't 100% sure so suspended the eviction.

This is becoming very fishy indeed:

Yes , my brother provided the wrong street door access because when he visited 4 years ago he took pictures of 2 street door access routes into the block but then deleted the 'correct' one in error from his phone camera.

When you look at where our flat is on the 2nd floor, there are street access doors just under and adjacent to our flat at ground level (it is plainly obvious), not around the corner of the building 40 yards away to another section of the block (ie. the incorrect street door photo that was on my brothers phone camera). The court officials knew this was the wrong entrance because they sent us a photo of the correct street door querying (as if they didn't know) whether this was the correct entrance point.

Why didn't they just go through the correct street door go up 2 flights of stairs and look at our flat number on the door? They knew its our flat because we gave them the outside photo with an arrow pointing directly to the balcony of our flat on the 2nd floor.

Why would a tenant risk staying in his apartment if he knew he couldn't stop the eviction in a few days time ? Why risk being given 'x' minutes to leave the flat on Tuesday when he has thousands of pounds worth of belongings (TV, beds, furniture, Fridge, Washing Machine, Heaters , etc etc) that he could lose ownership for? It seems logical to me that he would have no choice but to hire a removal company and transfer all his goods to another address before the eviction date.

Anyhow , our lawyer has requested another SCNE eviction date (another several weeks delay).

We had a new eviction date yesterday and guess what ? It was suspended again .

Our tenant is subletting the flat illegally but because the lady living there has a child , they couldn't evict her , even if she didn't have a 'Lease Title' as proof .

So it goes on and on and on.....................

Another SCNE eviction date is required (4-6 week delay).

The eviction date we were given next week has been suspended again - this time the SCNE court official has been quarantined due to COV19 , so next eviction date in Jan 2021 .

So we were now getting close to 3 years to evict the tenant through the so called 'express eviction' process . To every potential landlord out there , please don't invest in Spain or rent out your properties.

We have now evicted the tenant yesterday but it was not easy. An African man was living in our flat and refused to go saying that he had a verbal agreement with our tenant who he thought was the owner. The court officials informed him of the legalities but he still refused to leave so the Guardia Civil had to be called to assist with enforcement.

Before they arrived , our tenant turned up saying 'he was the legal owner' and that he didn't know anything about a court eviction'. The court officials informed them to leave or they would be forced out, so they complied .

Our locksmith changed the locks while the court officials took photos of our flat which is now in a state of disrepair . It is obvious to us that the tenant has been subletting the flat to people who need cheap temporary accommodation. He is obviously living elsewhere and has made a tidy sum over the last 10 years which is why he has been so determined in fighting the eviction .

So the Spanish State must be delighted that they are now offering free legal aid to their own people to commit fraud against law-abiding landlords - well done Spain.

If this tenant or someone else breaks into our apartment again there will be blood because we now know from experience that the Spanish Court process is an expensive waste of time.

THIS IS A WARNING TO EVERYONE OUT THERE WHO IS THINKING ABOUT INVESTING IN SPANISH PROPERTY . TAKE YOUR MONEY ELSEWHERE TO A COUNTRY THAT HAS FAIR UNBIASED LAWS , THAT IS NOT A SQUATTERS PARADISE, THAT DOESN'T OFFER FREE LEGAL AID TO DOMICILES INVOLVED IN CRIMINAL ACTS, THAT DOESN'T HAVE A FAR LEFT GOVERNMENT SUPPORTING SQUATTERS RIGHTS AND CREATING ANTI-LANDLORD/PRIVATE OWNERSHIP LEGISLATION SUCH AS PENALISING LANDLORDS FOR HAVING EMPTY PROPERTIES , HIGHER TAXES ON VALUE OF SALE, DRACONIAN RESTRICTIONS ON RENT, ETC.

IT HAS COST US 8K EUROS TO EVICT THE TENANT AND 18K LOSS IN RENT . HE HAS EMPTIED HIS BANK ACCOUNTS AND SOLD OFF HIS ASSETS BEFORE THE COURTS COULD EMBARGO THEM TO PAY OUR COURT/SOLICITOR COSTS. ALL WE GET BACK IS OUR PROPERTY THAT IS IN A STATE OF DISREPAIR.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH SPAIN - GOODBYE AND GOOD RIDDANCE

Just thought I'd update on our current situation.

1. Tenant was evicted in Jan 21 .
2. Our lawyer sent a letter by Burofax to the registered address of the Community of Owners (using the CIF in the court appeal evidence). Asking for 5 years annual accounts, AGM minutes to confirm any Comunidad debt . Received no response.
2. Ex Tenant and his family (ie. the claimed Presidents of the block) broke back in immediately and changed the locks
3. Because of travel restrictions my brother could not visit until Aug .
4. He was obstructed from changing the locks or entering our own property by the ex-tenant, his father and a friend of theirs. They actually attacked my brother pushing down the stairwell and also threatened with a metal skewer (my brother had to file a police report).
5. My brother came back home to the UK and revisited the flat again with this lawyer but the ex-tenants father obstructed them again ranting and raving that the flat was now the property of the 'Community Of Owners'. He would not discuss the situation with our lawyer so the Guardia Civil were called to allow my brother's locksmith to enter the flat and change the locks.
6. The police found evidence of drug usage in the flat which had broken windows and doors .
7. My brother had the place gutted of all furniture , installed a high security door , boarded up all the broken windows and doors , sealed off a way to break in via a window on the stairwell.
8. We found what we thought was our water meter on the roof in a locked metal caged enclosure with all the other flat meters in the block. The meter had been sealed off for non-payment .
9. Visited the water company and asked them to check if this was out water meter and what was the status of the account . They gave us account details that didn't make any sense because there was an account for our ex-tenant but not linked to our address but a flat on the 4th floor (ours is on the 2nd floor) . Also the meter number we thought was for our property was contracted to some stranger at a different flat address in our block (ie. on the 1st floor which was derelict). The water company would not reconnect the water meter we thought was for our flat without paying the outstanding balance and reconnection charge (even thought we didn't know for certain that it was for our property). So we paid the outstanding balance, their inspected visited our building and turned the water meter supply back on.
10. When our property renovator visited our flat the next day there was still no water so he contacted the water company to find out what had happened. They sent the inspector around again and he found that someone had entered the metal caged enclosure and turned the water meter supply off , so he turned it back on again.
It is obvious to us that the ex-tenants father (now the claimed President taking over control from his wife) has the key to the enclosure and spitefully turned our water supply off.
11. We will now check again whether the water supply is on or off to ensure there are no leaks in our pipework.

IT IS UNBELIEVABLE THAT THE POLICE AND AUTHORITIES ALLOW THIS 'PRESIDENT' TO WHATEVER HE WISHES TO MAKE OUR LIFE DIFFICULT. MAYBE THE ONLY WAY IS TO TAKE THE LAW IN OUR OWN HANDS AND FIGHT BACK . KICK DOWN HIS DOOR AND CHANGE THE LOCKS, PAY A SQUATTER TO OCCUPY HIS PROPERTY, BREAK HIS WINDOWS, SABOTAGE HIS OWN WATER SUPPLY . THE POLICE AND AUTHORITIES DO NOTHING SO WHAT OTHER OPTIONS DO WE HAVE OTHER THAN TO GO THROUGH THE RUBBISH BIASED COURT SYSTEMS (A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY).

What a horror story, sounds like the mafia. Thank you for sharing your story, I am forewarned.