“We arrived paying about 750 euros; now they ask us for more than 1,000. The colleagues notified us when we signed the contract, they told us to be careful, because they would start charging us between 200 and 300 euros more in the third yearfor issues such as Real Estate Tax (IBI) or community expenses. This is not allowed; Prices can only rise, during the first seven years, as much as the CPI.” Rodrigo Sainz has lived since 2021 in one of the ten blocks that society Nestar –owned by the Azora fund– has in the Community of Madrid. The 100 residents of his building, at Martin Muñoz, 7 (Villa de Vallecas), they started a rent strike two months ago that they will continue, they say, “until the company stops playing Monopoly“.
He Madrid Tenants Union This Thursday, it filed the first collective complaint against the company for the “eight abusive clauses” included in the contracts. The neighbors, forced to endure increases of up to 30% in rentsince September they have been paying only the price agreed upon at the time of entry andas legally required updates. Jurisprudence works in their favor: a ruling by the Llogateres Union against the same vulture fund –previously registered as Lazora– recognizes its illegality. The 29 families who sign the complaint underline the importance of “neighborhood organization“and they hope to reach an agreement with the real estate company to renegotiate the rates.
Nestar has more than 8,000 homes throughout the country; is the third largest landlord in Spain. The company imposed a series of abusive clauses on all its tenants, which come into force in the third year of the contract. “The neighbors have known for months that the prices they paid were disproportionate, but They did not dare to act because they did not identify the problem as something collective.They were afraid of reprisals. Neither the complaint nor the strike would have been possible without collective coordination,” the Union insists. The vulture fund changed its name shortly after receiving the first blow from Justice; the first ruling favorable to the tenants.
“What is new about this case is that the 29 plaintiffs of Martin Muñoz They join the 12 from Corral de Almaguer –also in Villa de Vallecas–. It is a collective complaint against non-payment insurance, IBI bonuses and community expenses, in addition to five other penal clauses. Neighbors also have the status of consumers; They are not only protected by the Urban Leasing Law (LAU), but also by the Law for the Defense of Consumers and Users,” says Víctor Palomo, lawyer for the Madrid Tenants’ Union. Nestar has not responded to calls from Public before the publication of this news.
Non-payment insurance, 40,000 euros of losses
The company “sells” the non-payment insurance as an “additional guarantee” for the tenants, but when the contracts expire, he never returns it. The neighbors criticize that, as if that were not enough, Nestar “imposes the company” with which to carry out this procedure. The amount is usually paid in a single payment of around 500 euros per year. The Tenants Union estimates that a total of 900 families of ten blocks of Parla, Móstoles, Pinto, Villaverde, Carabanchel and Vallecas, all of them owned by the same large holder, have not paid this insurance since June. The Courts of Parla also ruled in favor of the tenants, certifying that the company cannot charge for a service that it has deliberately contracted and to meet their own needs.
The clauses that incorporate installments into the rental concept of IBI or community expenses“which should always be in charge of the owner entity”, also have a trick. “These payments are legal; but not in the terms proposed by the vulture fund. Nestar sells these installments as an offersays that it subsidizes them during the first three years, but de facto They represent a 30% increase in income. It is a fictitious clause, there is no offer as such; The conditions are the same for all tenants. The goal is to raise rents in such a way that neighbors cannot afford them.“he explains to Public Victor Palomo.
The organization of neighbors, key
Rodrigo Sainz recognizes that “this topic has tradition.” The building in which he lives with his partner and two other companions was public ownership and was sold “for four bitches” to the Nestar company. “People who paid a social rent with an option to buy have lost that option,” recalls the tenant. At that time, the Community of Madrid was in the hands of Esperanza Aguirre. The two affected blocks in Pinto and Parla were also part of the public housing stockbut its management has been handed over to the private sector by the town councils themselves.
“The organization has been difficult, because every so often new neighbors arrive and many only last one or two years here. We started meeting in September of last year and presented an extrajudicial claim, to ask for an end to abusive clauses and that the owners take responsibility for the damage to each floor. The company did not pay any attention to us; We contacted the union and after several meetings, we launched the strike and the lawsuit. The process has been long, many afternoons of going door to door and coordinate the actions, otherwise it would have been impossible,” says Rodrigo Sainz. The residents of the block claim that they have been suffering problems with the boiler and supplies since they “declared war” on the vulture fund.
Nestar has threatened to include them in a defaulters file and even evict them. “The complaint protects us in this sense. What we are doing is questioning whether we can be charged for certain clauses; but we continue paying the rent that we consider to be legitimate. The fact that it is a collective action gives us a certain security“, emphasize the neighbors. The Tenants’ Union hopes that the company will sit down to negotiate and focuses on the scope of real estate abuses: “Many investment funds do this. Nestar is the one with the most obvious sentence, but there are more cases and we are going to continue supporting the working classes in their fight.”
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