When Giselle Mateus got divorced in 2019, she found herself on the street, with three children and no resources. “I didn’t know what to do,” he explains. Faced with the prospect of sleeping rough with his little ones, some acquaintances gave him the keys to an empty apartment in Vallecas, which was owned by Sareb, the so-called ‘bad bank’, which the Executive wants to turn into one of the pillars of its affordable housing policy. In 2022, after two threats of eviction, and thanks to the advice of the Platform for People Affected by Mortgage (PAH), which in recent years has recovered dozens of uninhabited homes in the area, he achieved a social rental contract.
Giselle then began paying affordable rent. It was 110 euros a month. From one day to the next and without prior notice, he says, the majority-public entity began charging him 693 euros. An increase of 630%, unaffordable for its economy. In 2023, the manager put a new contract in front of him, with the condition of forgiving him a debt of more than 8,000 euros. “I was scared and I signed, I had no other option,” laments the woman, who is now 37 years old.
The PAH of Vallekas has now promoted a campaign with which it intends to reverse hundreds of contracts that tenants have signed with Sareb because, they believe, they contain abusive clauses. Giselle’s will be the first, but they hope that many more will follow. Because these impositions, they point out, are present in about 10,000 contracts. “They give an idea that for Sareb and the Government, each and every one of these houses are financial assets and are not part of any plan to decommodify housing,” says Sonia García, one of the platform’s spokespersons.
The lawyer who will file the lawsuit, Diego Redondo, explains, in conversation with elDiario.es, that the complaint is based on the Consumer and User Law, which ensures that the balance between landlord and tenant is maintained. “The regulations establish a triple control of clauses; The first is that they will be abusive if they are not negotiated between one and the other; then there is transparency control, which ensures that the contract is written in an accessible manner; and the third is abuse, if there is a disproportion within the clause,” he points out.
According to Vallekas’ PAH, the contracts imposed by Sareb fail to meet these requirements. Mainly in relation to four clauses, which are the ones that will be fought in court, although “there may be more, and in fact there are,” Redondo considers. These have to do with the penalty, which forces tenants to pay triple the daily fee if they have to leave the home and do not do so, which has a “deterrent” effect when it comes to complaining; that of costs; that of visits, which the owners include to be able to check the state of the home, something that in Redondo’s opinion “violates the inviolability of the home”; and that which is linked to social support.
Precisely, in the latter is one of the crux of the issue. Sareb explains that the rental bonus is linked to social support. If the families, they point out, do not collaborate, this discount disappears and the rent is charged at the market price. This support has to do with the request for benefits such as the Minimum Living Income or the electric social bonus and collaboration, the tenants say, involves letting any worker enter their home at any time. “It is aimed at improving their income and socioeconomic situation, but the bonus is reviewed once a year, based on that income. The idea of the program is that the rent can be increased,” the entity admits. Some increases that are outside the Housing Law, which limits them to a price index on which the National Institute of Statistics works.
This condition means that families have effective guardianship by private entities, such as the real estate manager Servihábitat. “You would have to report if you are pregnant, if you are fired from work, if you get divorced, if you take sick leave or request a reduction in hours,” Redondo lists: “You become the son of Sareb, a strict father over whom you have “a series of rights and obligations so that you can pay them more.” Pau, a neighbor from Carabanchel with a similar situation, admits a feeling of belonging: “I live with the burden that, if I make any change, I will be punished.”
“We do not want mediators, nor social support, but decent and stable housing, outside the market now and in the future”
Sonia Garcia
— Spokesperson for the PAH of Vallekas
“We do not want mediators, nor social support, but decent and stable housing, outside the market now and in the future,” claims García, who demands a “collective negotiation that includes all tenants and precarious workers included in the campaign.” “How can it be that in the middle of the debate on housing and the high cost of rents, we, the lower-income, racialized households, who have had to squat in houses to have a roof over their heads, or with current contracts that Sareb does not respect, “Do we have to prove that we deserve housing?” he points out, pointing directly to the Ministers of Economy, Carlos Body, of Housing, Isabel Rodríguez, and of Social Rights, Pablo Bustinduy.
Saadia is 67 years old and lives alone. From 2022, he paid a rent of 249.90 euros, through direct debit. “In August he takes twice as much money,” he says, showing two receipts, for an amount of 482.22 and 472.77 euros, without understanding why. “Together we explain what is happening, when people are organized we are able to give them an answer,” says Sonia, who claims this collective work.
Servihabitat, the company in charge of managing the social part of Sareb, is made up of CaixaBank and the Lone Star fund, based in Dallas. Both companies have obtained dividends of more than 3,000 million euros since 2019. “It is the landing of the privatization of public rentals,” García laments. “Sareb’s social policy is managed by a Texan investment fund,” insists Diego, an activist from the PAH, a tenant with his partner, Mercedes, since 2017 and who has behind them long years of negotiations with mediators, months of rent not charges and threats of eviction.
According to Sareb data, there are currently more than 8,000 social rentals signed and more than half of the homes, in which around 13,800 families live, have been incorporated into its support company. However, according to the entity itself, only 20% of the accompanied families have improved their income. Another 2,000 homes are within the framework of different agreements with public administrations.
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