Besides the most important issue of concern for a great number of people nowadays, our health; another big worry for the majority of homeowners is the likelihood that your Spanish holiday home might be occupied by squatters. There are many rumours about the lack of protection of the Spanish Legal System when this type of situation occurs; some of them are unfounded even though the official response can objectively improve.
First issue to be clarified is how the Spanish Legal System perceives this type of “illegal action”. Is the “housebreaking” (“allanamiento de morada”) present in the Spanish criminal code? The answer is yes; to be more precise in article 202 of the Spanish Criminal Code differentiating the sentence whether the offence is committed with violence and intimidation or not. The Code of Criminal Procedure contains article 490.1º whereby the detention of the delinquent is permitted. Therefore, should someone who commits trespassing/housebreaking be arrested by the Police? No doubt about it, they should without the need of Court action as it is considered as a flagrant offense. However, why are the Civil Courts currently full of cases of people denouncing squatting of their properties? To answer this interrogation it is very important to clarify the concept of what in Spain is known as “Morada” (Dwelling). A “Morada” (Dwelling) is considered your main domicile and as such should be also considered your second holiday home, the one you use and visit a few days or months per year. What is not a “Morada” (Dwelling) is an abandoned house, an empty not sold house, unoccupied house, etc.….
Therefore, in strict legal terms and correctly interpreting, if anyone breaks into a holiday home Police action should be immediately taken as it does not matter if you are not in the house because you went for coffee or simply because you use the house just during summer periods, to put an example. Technically the Police should open an investigation at once based on article 202 (“allanamiento de morada”) and not based on article 245 of the Criminal Code which refers to what is known as “delito de usurpación” (misappropriation seizure) which should only relate when a house that does not constitute anyone’s Dwelling (“morada”) has been “peacefully occupied” as in the “euphemistic” terminology is currently the squatters’ action referred to.
Up to now there has been a doubtful Police criteria and owners of second holiday homes have been obliged to take Civil Court Action to recover possession of their properties that usually takes a minimum of a year to happen due to the usual slowness of our Courts. In 2018 a legal reform in the Civil Procedure Law was performed in order to speed up the eviction in certain cases with the aim of regaining possession when the house had been illegally occupied.

Our legal system is formally prepared to offer an instant Police response to the “illegal entrances” in holiday homes. The concern persisting up to now is the internal Police criteria applied, which in many cases, does not agree to what our Criminal Code observes when this type of complaints are received. Luckily, some district attorneys’ offices have recently reacted insisting in the need of the Police Forces immediate action by means initially of rapidly carrying out certain online scrutiny that can lead to clarifying property ownership.
The “Fiscal Jefe de la Fiscalía Provincial de Valencia” (máximum responsible of the Valencia Region Attorneys), José Francisco Ortiz Navarro, has recently sent a Decree to all Attorneys and Police Forces of Alicante advising on how to act in case of ilegal entrance. This decree has been duly supervised by the Technical Secretary Office of the State General Attorney in the context of the new way of acting before the illegal housebreaking actions opened by the Superior Attorney (Fiscal Superior) of Islas Baleares, Bartolomé Barceló Oliver, more than thirteen months ago.
The CEP ( Confederación Española de Policía) which is the Spanish Police Association has requested to the “Ministerio del Interior” (Ministry of Internal Affairs) to issue a clear instruction on how to act when this type of illegal occupations are communicated to the Police in order to offer citizens a correct police response to this increasing social problem.
Lia Lawyers. 2nd of October 2020