Shameful Tenant Tactics To Avoid Eviction

[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!).

[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.

[Humbug]

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.

[Humbug]

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).

[Humbug]

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).

[Humbug]

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 .

[Humbug]

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.........

[Humbug]

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).

[Humbug]

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).