Cut the supplies to the squatters, the decision of Catalan judges that can be extended throughout Spain

According to the statistics handled by the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) with data from 2023, the average time in Spain for Legally evict an Okupa It is twelve months, a period to which the appeals of sentences are added to the provincial hearings can be extended until almost two years, specifically at 23.2 months. Given this situation, some owners may be tempted to look for more direct roads. One of them, of pure common sense for a mocked owner, who sees how he has to continue paying the water and light to whom he usurps his house, is to stop paying or cutting the Basic housing suppliessomething that, however, can lead to legal problems. In this sense, Spanish legislation is clear, establishing that any attempt to throw an illegal tenant without the intervention of the authorities can be considered a crime of coercion. Cutting water, light or gas, considered basic supplies, would be within this assumption.

Now, at least in the provinces of Barcelona and Gerona, this will cease to be so. The magistrates of the criminal sections of the Audience of Barcelona and that of Gerona agreed at their meetings on March 7 and November 22, 2024, respectively, unify criteria, so that “in case the holder of a farm (in property regime or any other title that enables its use), occupied or that has been subject to breaking and enteringdo not keep the registration of the supplies or the payment of them, it will not be constitutive of a crime of coercion ».

The same magistrates agreed that in case of complaints for mild crime of usurpation against people whose identity is unknown, «It will not be possible to agree on provisional dismissal»Without the police try to identify the occupants of the farm. Only in case they do not get it, the dismissal will be proceeded.

The decision of the judges of Barcelona has been valued by sources from the real estate sector consulted by ABC as “common sense”, and showed their confidence that, with the same logic, the same criteria to the whole of Spain is extended. In this regard, sources from the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) point out that it will end up being once, well because the joints of judges in other provinces follow the example, or because it reaches the Supreme Court By resource, doctrine will end. It would be about reaching a unified interpretation so that a different thing is not done in each autonomous community.

Fernando Portillo, spokesman for the Independent Judicial Forum, which celebrates that, at least in Barcelona and from this moment on, the interpretation has been clarified: «Until now it depended a little on the reading made by each judge, because the Supreme Court has disparate resolutions». It is what defines as a “border” issue, of variable interpretation, something that now in Barcelona is already defined. In this sense, Portillo points out, it would be desirable that the same criteria extended throughout the national territory, without this meaning that the judges in other part of Spain are already acting with the same logic. If the Independent Judicial Forum spokesman celebrates that the decision adopted in Barcelona gives more weapons to fight against the phenomena of the occupation, either by usurpation of real estate oo for tax of rent, which is colloquially known as «Inquiocupation».

For his part, Sergio Oliva, national spokesman of the Francisco de Vitoria Judicial Association, agrees that he will end up being the TS who is pronounced so that he links all the judges of Spain. In addition to the decriminalization of the Supply cutOliva considers “interesting and positive” the decision not to allow the dismissal of the occupations without at least attempting the identification of the authors, some attests without a known author who stayed in the police and did not reach the court.

The agreement of the Barcelona magistrates He preceded the adopted by Gerona, who in addition to endorsing the supplies cut authorized what has been defined as “express eviction” without prior judicial authorization if the police act in the first 24 hours. It is based on this criterion that the Mossos acted to evict the magnet of Salt (Gerona) when he tried to re -occupy the floor of which he had been evicted, an intervention that triggered several nights of serious incidents in this town.

The agreement of the Magistrates of Gerona, who advanced ‘El Periódico’, not only seeks the expulsion of the occupants by the rapid route but a greater judicial speed. Thus, the judges “advise” that the processing of the procedures for minor crimes of usurpation of real estate is done through the “immediate procedure (…) and must take care of the Police bodies of identification and summons in the opinion of the denounced occupants ». “The acting agents will carry out an act of checking the damage that will incorporate the police report, which will be sent to the Court of Guard together with the summons in the opinion of the occupants,” they add in an attempt to begin to channel a phenomenon to which it does not seem easy to remedy.

Yesterday, it transpired that the total number of releases, or evictions, practiced in 2024 was 27,564, 3.4% more than the previous year, as can be seen from the report published by the CGPJ. 74.6% of the launches, 20,558, was a consequence of procedures derived from the Urban Lease Law (LAU)while another 5,073 (18.4%) derived from mortgage executions. The remaining 1933 obeyed other causes. The tax launches experienced an interannual increase of 4.5% compared to 2023, and the derivatives of mortgage executions, a 3.6% decrease.

By territories, Catalonia – with 7,381, 26.8% of the total – was the autonomous community in which more were practiced Evictionsfollowed by Andalusia (4,027) and Valencia (3,610).