The Supreme Court forces Blackstone to sell homes awarded to it by Ana Botella at the bargain price for which it bought them

The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of four Blackstone tenants, to whom they must sell their homes at the same bargain price for which they were purchased from the Madrid City Council: 68,000 euros. The ruling, to which elDiario.es has had access, supports the Provincial Court, which had already indicated in 2019 that the vulture fund had to respect the right of withdrawal of these families, recognized in the contracts they signed with the Municipal Company of Housing and Land (EMVS) and that gave them priority for the acquisition of properties.

The contracts signed by these families with the EMVS included the purchase option after seven years of rental, which was not respected by Fidere, the SOCIMI that manages the rentals on behalf of Blackstone. At first, the court of first instance 84 of Madrid ruled in favor of the merits, a decision that was amended by the National Court and now ratified by the Supreme Court, which has decided to reject the appeal filed by the company and impose, Also, the coasts.

Blackstone’s appeal revolves around an argument that the Supreme Court dismantles: that the homes were sold en bloc and not individually. This is one of the keys, because the urban lease law (LAU) excludes the right of withdrawal in the event that the properties are transferred as a single thing, in a single deed. The joint price that the vulture fund paid to the City Council of the then mayor Ana Botella was 72.8 million euros, about 68,000 per home. However, the Provincial Court of Madrid already stated that “in the deed, each element is individualized as “property” and, as a whole, as “properties”, individually reflecting the cadastral identification of each of the properties that make up the promotion.” And they also identify “each lease, each tenant, with expenses and income and a price is given for each unit.”

The Supreme Court delves into this idea: “The defendant (Fidere) has not proven that the sale included all the units of the building, because apart from the fact that the deed does not state that all the homes were transferred, it is expressly stated that they were not subject to of the transmission forty-four parking spaces in the property. In such a way that the factual budget for the denial of the withdrawal does not exist, because when not all the properties of the same building are transferred, the application of the restrictions or limitations of article 25.7 of the LAU cannot be sought.

In 2013, EMVS sold Blackstone a total of 1,860 homes, 1,797 parking spaces and 1,569 storage rooms, belonging to 18 developments built under different public protection regimes. The operation, ordered by the then mayor Ana Botella, is the great example of the diversion of public housing into private hands in recent years in Spain. The Court of Auditors sentenced the former councilor to pay 25.7 million euros out of her pocket, which the Prosecution Chamber later revoked by two votes to one. In his favor he had two advisors proposed by the Popular Party: who was Minister of Justice in the first Government of José María Aznar, Margarita Mariscal de Gante, and José Manuel Suárez Robledano.

The lawyer who handled the case, José Mariano Benítez de Lugo, considers that the Supreme Court’s decision opens the way for the rest of the families in this situation. “I have another ruling from the Provincial Court that recognizes another 40 cases that are pending resolution by the Supreme Court and there are more than 100 cases that claim the same right. Logically, the principle of unity of doctrine of the court itself would mean applying the same criteria to that operation as to others,” he explains in conversation with elDiario.es.