Squatter eviction times in Spain at all time high: almost two years in court

The time a homeowner in Spain has to wait for a ruling to evict squatters from a property is at an all-time high. At the end of last year, the average time was 24 months, adding the average period of the proceedings of the First Instance Courts and those of the Provincial Courts, in the case of legal appeals.

According to data from the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), the average time taken in oral possession proceedings for illegal occupation of properties in the Courts of First Instance and Civil Courts of Instruction was 12 months in 2023, compared to 10.6 months in 2022. In the last five years, the period has practically tripled (in 2018, the average for the country as a whole was 4.9 months).

The average time taken for appeals of judgments in the Provincial Courts in civil proceedings, in case of appeal, is already 11.2 months on average.

In both cases, the time it takes is more than ever before in the historical series and the total is on the verge of two years (23.2 months). This increase in the average time a landlord has to wait to obtain a court ruling that supports the eviction coincides with a fall in what the CGPJ calls "reinforcement", which translates into the percentage of judgments that have been handed down by judges working to support the courts.

In the Courts of First Instance for civil proceedings (where verbal proceedings for squatting are included), the reinforcement rate has fallen to 9.15% in 2023, down from 10.41% the previous year. This is the fourth consecutive drop and the first time the figure has fallen below double digits since 2017. For civil proceedings in the Provincial Courts for oral trials, the reinforcement rate stood at 14.11% in 2023, the lowest figure since 2018, after falling seven points in the last two fiscal years.

How long it takes to evict a squatter by autonomous community

Beyond the national average, the time taken to evict a squatter from a property with a final judgement differs according to each autonomous community, with Castile and Leon and Murcia having the longest average periods, and Navarre and Aragon having the shortest.

Castile and Leon is currently the region that takes the longest time, with more than 15 months in the case of oral trials in the courts of first instance alone. If we add the proceedings in the Provincial Courts, in case of appeal, the total time to evict a squatter from a property with a final judgement reaches three years, with 35.9 months. 

Murcia is at the top of the list, with an average of 27 months, followed by the Canary Islands (26 months) and Andalusia (24.9 months). Also above the national average are Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, with 23.7 and 23.5 months, respectively. 

Slightly below the average for Spain as a whole are Madrid, Valencia, Castile-La Mancha and the Basque Country, all with an average period of between 20 and 21.5 months between the courts of First Instance and appeals in the Provincial Courts.

Cantabria, Galicia, La Rioja and Extremadura, meanwhile, record average periods of close to one and a half years, while the only three autonomous communities with total average periods of less than 15 months are Asturias (14.9), Navarre (14.2) and Aragon (13.5 months). Therefore, there is no region in Spain where it takes less than one year.

Fewer procedures in 2023

According to the CGPJ, during 2023, 2,261 oral possessory proceedings for illegal occupation of homes reached the courts throughout Spain, 18.8% less than in 2022. In Catalonia alone, 445 were recorded, 23.6% of the Spanish total, which made it the region with the highest number of claims in the country in the last five years. 

After Catalonia, the next three autonomous communities with the highest number of squatting proceedings were Andalusia (424), the Valencian Community (379) and Madrid (215). However, if we relate the number of proceedings to the number of inhabitants, the Balearic Islands has the highest rate with 9.8 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Castile-La Mancha and the Valencian Community with 7.3, and the Canary Islands with 6.3.

Why it is taking longer and longer to evict squatters?

Experts in real estate law assure that the increased process times are yet another example of the generalised collapse of the Administration of Justice in Spain. 

"Legal proceedings are getting slower every day for many reasons, such as the growth of litigation and the lack of personnel and material resources in the courts," says Carmen Giménez, a lawyer at G&G Abogados, who adds that "as the Administration of Justice is the poor sister of the Public Administrations (it does not generate money like the Tax Office, for example), it does not have enough resources, and we are working with a justice system that seems almost medieval". 

Even though under the government of Mariano Rajoy (PP) and with Rafael Catalá as Minister of Justice, measures were implemented to reduce the amount of paper in the courts and speed up procedures, Giménez insists that "civil servants work with mountains of paper and files because digital judicial records have not been created". This means that the paper has to be taken to court, "nor do they have enough material means to print what we send there". 

According to Giménez, all of this means that not only squatting cases are being affected by what she describes as "monumental delays", but "all procedures in general". Furthermore, the lawyer adds, "We have to take into account that there are preferential procedures, such as those that deal with fundamental rights, minors, determination of competence, etc. Plus there are different legislative modifications with eviction suspensions if the vulnerability of the occupants is accredited (two months if the owner is a natural person and four months if the owner is a legal entity)". 

In this scenario, "the resolution of a procedure to evict a squatter can take between eight months and a year and a half in the first instance (depending on the court that handles it and the saturation of cases it has), and then the Provincial Court, also depending on each autonomous community, between eight months and two years", acknowledges Giménez. Thus, he adds, "citizens' rights remain on paper, but they do not really obtain them unless it is in the very long term. Delayed justice is undelivered justice".

José Méndez, founding partner and director of Méndez Lit, a law firm specialising in real estate and urban planning law, agrees with this diagnosis and assures that "resolution times are increasing in a way that is unbearable for the litigant", and that "these delays are not only attributable to one given type of process but to all types of processes and jurisdiction without exception". The lawyer lists several reasons for this situation, such as the lack of material and human resources, obsolete procedural laws with procedures from the last century and without really applying technology, the lack of administrative coordination and objectives, and the excessive workload. All of this is causing "a weakening of the right to property which, apart from doctrinal nuances and other considerations, must be protected by the legal system as a basic pillar of freedom", according to Méndez. 

Meanwhile, Arantxa Goenaga, lawyer and partner at AF Legis, states that "basically the problem is the suspension of procedures due to the Law on the Right to Housing. Most of the procedures enter into a suspension loop, which means that the lack of resources leads to a very long delay. Social services do not cover all cases and, together with the lack of resources in justice, this creates the perfect storm and has led to procedures taking twice as long". 

According to Ricardo Bravo, spokesperson for the Platform of People Affected by Squatting (PAO), increased times "it taking excessive time for owners to recover their properties, therefore, it is an indirect discrimination reflected in the Housing Law towards owners, creating great legal insecurity for all owners who are withdrawing their homes from the rental market, causing prices to rise in turn due to the decrease in supply". The PAO spokesperson, therefore, insists that "we directly relate the phenomenon of squatting to the great legal insecurity that is currently experienced in the rental market and to the current crisis".

Montserrat Junyent, vice president of the real estate employers' association FADEI, supports all these arguments and mentions both the lack of resources in the justice system and legal insecurity. In her opinion, "the most significant problem facing Spanish justice and which contributes to the slowness of eviction processes lies in the lack of resources in the Administration of Justice. This problem is mainly due to the shortage of staff and the lack of effective technological tools. The lack of technological resources results in an overload of work for both judges and lawyers in the administration of justice. Another factor contributing to the delay in eviction proceedings is the constant legislative changes in the last five years, favouring the tenant and shifting the burden of maintaining social housing to the landlord, which generates legal uncertainty. 

On the other hand, Junyent also explains that "our current system is flawed, especially regarding the powers of police forces. They lack the authority to carry out an eviction without first going through the courts, which draws out the procedure considerably. Insufficient social housing is another major problem the country faces. As long as social housing does not increase, owners are at a disadvantage, as they are burdened with the responsibility of maintaining social housing with their properties, especially in regions such as Catalonia where some landlords are obliged to offer social rent in certain cases. 

José Ramón Zurdo, a lawyer specialising in leases and director general of the Rental Negotiation Agency (ANA), states that "the increased times are due to three reasons, on the one hand, a significant increase in litigation in leasing matters, which causes a backlog of cases. This is compounded by a lack of resources and reinforcements, which leads to a significant collapse, and finally, by the lengthening of judicial procedures, which are caused by the new Law on the Right to Housing, which requires more documentation and formalities to initiate eviction procedures. For example, accreditation stating if landlords have few or many properties, that tenants habitually reside in the rented accommodation, suspension of evictions in cases of vulnerability of tenants without housing alternatives, etc."

Measures to resolve the problem

To tackle the delays in the courts, according to the G&G lawyer, the solutions would be to "provide material resources in line with the century we are living in, such as creating the electronic judicial records, and more staff in the Courts", which would mean allocating "a large budget to the Administration of Justice".

The AF Legis member also believes that "the fundamental measure is to provide the courts and social services with the means to act quickly and, above all, to sift through the cases, because nowadays all procedures go through this process and this shouldn't always be the case". And he adds that "the State and the Administration, in general, must limit these situations to real cases and above all prioritise squatter and renter-squatter cases so that there is no longer the feeling of impunity that they have now".

According to FADEI's vice president, "the judicial system needs greater investment and modernisation to streamline procedures and ensure a more efficient and accessible administration of justice for all citizens". It is also "essential to provide the police with the necessary resources and instructions to effectively tackle this problem and guarantee legal certainty in the process. To this end, a legislative change is necessary to allow the legitimate owner to recover possession within a maximum period of 72 hours". Finally, Junyent argues that to prevent squatting, "more budget must be allocated to building social housing. By increasing the supply of affordable housing, we can significantly reduce the unsatisfied demand that causes many people to squat". 

The Rental Negotiation Agency (ANA) considers it necessary to carry out "modifications to laws and instructions" to put a stop to squatting, while the PAO insists that "the consequences of having such long deadlines for evicting squatters is extremely damaging to the families who are suffering from both squatting and renter-squatters". They ensure that "what the PAO has been demanding is, on the one hand, a legislative modification that really protects vulnerable families with resources from the Public Administrations, but also the families who are suffering from squatting and renter-squatters. Therefore, we have been continuously demanding meetings with the Ministry of Housing and the Ministry of Justice, but we have not been heard".