Israel has been looking for an apartment for several weeks. He is 41 years old and one and a half years ago he returned to his parents’ house. “I shared a flat, but I had a bad experience and it was unsustainable. They suggested I come for a while, to save a little,” he explains. When he decided to resume his search and become independent, he encountered a hostile and impossible market. Despite his indefinite contract and a net salary of 1,500 euros, all doors were closed to him. But, in addition, Israel has encountered practices that groups for the right to housing, consumer associations, testimonies on social networks and groups of friends have been denouncing for months: abusive clauses and directly illegal charges, such as the agency month that prohibits law.
The Ministry of Social Rights announced this Monday the opening of an investigation after detecting illegal practices in several real estate agencies, such as the charging of management commissions, unjustified temporary contracts and other abusive clauses. “Passing property management and contract formalization expenses to tenants is an expressly prohibited practice,” they indicated from this department.
The state housing law, in force for more than a year and a half, prohibited charging future tenants what is known as the ‘agency month’. However, many real estate agencies continue to demand this payment from users. Some ask for it directly, although they then use subterfuges to justify it, which is what the General Directorate of Consumer Affairs is now investigating. “In general, they continue to charge fees to tenants, instead of landlords, because their business is exploiting tenants,” says Víctor Palomo, spokesperson for the Tenants’ Union.
“What is paid are the days corresponding to the month of September, depending on what day we enter, the deposit month and the agency month. It would be two monthly payments and not much,” a RedPiso worker explained to Israel by phone, according to a recording to which elDiario.es has had access and which is reproduced below. “Agency month?” he asks. “Yes, it’s more for services, for the services we give you for the rent,” she responds.
The services they refer to involve a handyman, which is usually included in the home insurance paid by the owner, cleaning prior to entering the apartment and non-payment insurance. “Different strategies are used, from charging it in b, which is very common, to the tenant service contract which, in practice, are fees, because it is paid before signing the contract and there is no service to the tenant. It is a way to cheat the law,” says Palomo.
For Israel, linked for years to housing rights movements, these tricks are not new. “But non-payment insurance benefits only the owner, not the tenant,” he responds in the call, given the statement that it is “for both parties.” “It is true that it benefits the owner more than the tenant, but it does give you the security that if at any time you have a problem, the issue of non-payment is not so extreme,” says the worker.
From the Tenants’ Union they explain that “only the tenant who has been illegally charged can go to court.” In practice, it represents a barrier. “People think that the legal costs are going to be more expensive than what they are going to recover. Furthermore, it means facing a judicial procedure that lasts a long time and requires respect,” says Palomo, who points out that the solution must come from the General Directorate of Consumer Affairs, which is now investigating these practices, and from arbitration systems, which also contemplate the state standard, but which are not yet fully developed.
Precisely, the union has initiated lawsuits through Consumer Affairs and actions, such as the singling out of real estate agencies and funds that apply these formulas. In May, the Sindicat de Llogateres and the Col-lectiu Ronda filed a class action lawsuit against Inmo Criteria, for abusive clauses in 2,000 rental contracts throughout Catalonia, including non-payment insurance. In 2023, both organizations already managed to get a Barcelona court to declare a clause of this type null and void, considering that “the landlord has mechanisms that allow consulting (solvency) in advance”, so it cannot “pass on the expenses that can generate measures that guarantee” that payment capacity.
Precisely, to guarantee this payment capacity, real estate companies demand more and more requirements. According to the experts consulted, requirements such as rates, months of deposit or requiring a certain rent are, in practice, entry barriers that make access to housing difficult. “I started searching with my payroll,” says Israel. Afterwards, he spoke with his parents to try to get the contract by adding their pensions. “As they cannot be seized, non-payment insurance does not accept them,” he clarifies. And the third option: “My sister is a civil servant and offered to rent with me. Between the two payrolls it is 4,000 euros per month, so you see how the doors open for you and they mark you as a priority to visit the apartments.” Not even like that: “When they are agencies, the vast majority continue to ask you for fees.”
For the moment, the few judicial victories in the field of abusive clauses, especially that of the collection of non-payment insurance, have emerged against the investment funds that manage housing parks and not against private renters or real estate companies. At the beginning of this month, Mónica, a resident of Parla, got the court to declare void the point of her contract that imposed this concept on her and forced the manager to return 1,000 euros. “They give me to pay the costs. If they appeal, I will end up losing money, but I prefer to pay the lawyer than the vulture fund,” he explained in an interview with elDiario.es.
Israel is still looking for an apartment in which to live, without allocating more than 30% of its payroll. At no time has he considered going through the hoop of the month of agency: “I refuse, I have previously thought about occupying, although I see it as something collective, in a context in which we are politically organized.”
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