ILLEGAL OCCUPATION 2020

New Measures to fight illegal occupation 2020
The Valencia Prosecutor’s Office takes another step to protect the owners. It decrees that the illegal occupation of a home will be considered the crime of breaking and entering.
* Read the Decree of the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office of Valencia August 20, 2020.

If the illegal occupation affects someone’s home, it will be a crime of trespassing, not usurpation as has happened until now. This new consideration, in addition to providing for longer prison sentences, provides prosecutors with tools. Unemployment processes are much shorter.

Since September 2020, the Prosecutor’s Office can take immediate eviction measures (from 24 to 48 hours) in the face of the illegal occupation of a home.

In this way, a distinction will be made between first and second residences, whose illegal occupation constitutes a crime of trespass, and uninhabited homes or properties that would lead to a crime of usurpation. The Prosecutor’s Office recommends requesting an immediate eviction. In the case of uninhabited properties (disused properties and/or bank properties), it is recommended to consider other circumstances.

Of course, it will be necessary to prove that the “occupant” is occupying the home illegally. The relevant local authorities will request documentation proving that they are doing so legally. If you do not do so, the new measures provided by the prosecutor’s office will be applied, which make it possible for vacancy to occur in 24-48 hours (previously it could be delayed up to approximately 6 months). This ‘fast track’ includes private owners, public administration and non-profit entities. It leaves out private entities such as banks, for which it recommends requesting eviction if there is “a risk of bankruptcy for legal assets.”

One of the most important novelties of this instruction is that in addition to considering the owners as victims, the neighbors will also be considered as such. All of this is due to the direct damage they cause to their rights and the problems of coexistence that these cases entail.

In short, from now on prosecutors will be able to urge the adoption, as a precautionary measure, of immediate eviction and the restitution of possession to the resident in 24-48 hours. Previously, it was a process that took us a minimum of 6 months, and did not provide any type of guarantee. With this new measure, which helps speed up the process, the case can be resolved in the prosecutor’s office, without going to a court hearing.