Squatters or ‘Okupas’ in Spain are a major problem. The illegal squatting of properties in Spain has become one of the biggest headaches for property owners in recent months, and Spain's well known problem with squatters doesn't seem to be getting any better. If you own a second home here that you use for your holidays, you could be at risk of having it illegally occupied. And beyond the economic damage caused by not being able to dispose of a property, one of the biggest problems is related to the time it takes for the courts to issue a sentence that allows the squatters to be evicted. This period of time is gradually being extended. So, when it comes to squatters in Spain, how long does it take to evict a tenant? i.e. just how long does it take to remove squatters from a property in Spain? We have the details.
According to data provided by the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), the average period that property owners in Spain have to wait to evict an illegal squatter in 2021 was 18.1 months. In other words, it currently takes just over a year and a half for final court rulings to evict squatters in Spain.
The 18 months that a procedure can take until the final judgement is handed down isn't an inconsiderable period, especially if we take into account that the problem of illegal squatting affects around 100,000 properties throughout Spain and that every day there are around 40 new cases, according to calculations by the Plataforma de Afectados por la Ocupación (Platform of People Affected by Squatting). Spain's Interior Ministry, for its part, counted around 13,400 complaints between January and September 2021, with a year-on-year growth of 20%.
In addition to the increase in squatting in Spain, the response time of the justice system is also increasing. In 2020, for example, the overall average time to obtain a final judgement was 16.7 months, while in 2019 it was 13.1 months. In 2018, the last year to which the historical series between both instances can be traced, the period was under a year (11.7 months).
From 30 months in Castile and León to 9 months in Asturias
The estimates of the average duration of judicial proceedings compiled by the CGPJ also include the time periods by Autonomous Region.
The first reading is that more than half of Spain registers periods shorter than the national average. Specifically, landlords in 12 Autonomous Regions have to wait less than 18.1 months for a final ruling to evict illegal tenants.
The regions where rulings arrive most quickly are Asturias and Navarre, with 9.3 and 9.7 months, respectively, followed by Aragon, with 10.8 months. In the rest of the country, the average time is already over a year. In Galicia and Castile-La Mancha, for example, it is just over 13 months, while in Extremadura and the Basque Country it is also below five quarters (14.2 and 14.7 months, respectively).
Below the domestic average are also the Valencian Community (16 months), Madrid (16.3) and Catalonia (18 months), the regions with the highest number of illegal squatters in the whole country, together with Andalusia (whose average is already close to 20 months).
In the Balearic Islands, the average time citizens have to wait to evict illegal tenants with a court ruling in hand is somewhat less (18.3 months), while in Murcia it is over 21 months and in the Canary Islands, 22 months. However, there is one autonomous region where the courts take the longest to hand down a ruling: Castile and León, where the average period is two and a half years (30.8 months).
How do you get squatters out in Spain? Do squatters rights exist in Spain? For more information on all of this, and on how to evict squatters in Spain and how to protect you Spanish home for squatters, check out our guides.