Literally, from that moment the agents have the power to evict her the day they want, at the time they want, without warning. This is what is called “open date evictions”, a form of launching that is still a minority, but that is gaining ground due to the advantage of not having to deal with neighborhood associations or platforms that organize resistance at the door in the evictions with date and time. And meanwhile, Ana lives in anguish sine die.
The situation of this woman has dragged on since she was convicted in a trial for theft of housing in 2018. 300 euros of fine and the obligation to abandon the property that she had to occupy out of sheer necessity, affected by a housing market with unattainable prices until for those with a good job. «Are we looking on the Internet right now? My God, if they ask you for two payrolls, don’t have a single debt, and even someone to back you up. As if you were going to ask for a mortgage! “, He laments.
Now she charges 620 euros thanks to social benefits, but when something comes out, she works as a cleaner or caretaker. You have asked for the Minimum Living Income but have been denied it. She has been from the Orriols neighborhood all her life, like her children, she is part of the School Council of her daughter’s school and her neighborhood community has signed a letter, on behalf of all, so that they do not throw her out.
Neighbors versus banks
But that does not mean anything for Sareb, which wants the apartment and is asking for it criminally. According to Eva Larrosa, from the Espai Veïnal Cabanyal neighborhood union (who accompanies and advises Ana), “that Sareb wants the apartment does not necessarily mean that it has sold it to another entity or fund, in Cabanyal many apartments are claimed by the Sareb and then remain empty for years.
The evictions with an open date began to be seen in Barcelona, in 2019, and there is evidence of the first in Valencia months before the arrival of the pandemic. Its application, when there is no legislation in this regard and everything is left to the interpretation of the judge, leaves many doubts. Even more so when València has experienced, for two years, the flourishing of a multitude of neighborhood unions that fight against evictions.
Luis Fernández, a lawyer specializing in housing law at the El Rogle cooperative, assures us that “we were unable to see the legal justification other than trying to avoid pressure from social movements.” Larrosa acknowledges that without a date and time, and given the possibility of them appearing at any time, organizing neighborhood resistance is almost impossible.
José Luís González, spokesman for the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages (PAH) in the Valencian Community, qualifies these procedures as “an eyesore” and focuses on the impact on the life of the person affected “who has to be 24 hours pending if they are going to come and evict him ». “It is an inhuman situation”, sentence.
Ana has the dining room table full of papers. Minimum Income, Social Services, court notifications, notary, extracts, contracts, vouchers, check-in … accustomed to navigate through the sea of bureaucracy like a fish in water, much as you would not like. Sareb has twice threatened to make a social rent that never materializes. Now his house is hanging by a thread. It does not put anything on the paper. “They can come today, tomorrow, the day after, or at any time.”
“After the pandemic there will be more launches of this type”
“Evictions with an open date are already prohibited. Any judge who does not want to legislate from his court knows it ». This is how forceful Santiago Mas de Xaxàs, a member of the PAH in Barcelona, expresses himself, who defends that the current law already specifies that all evictions must be dated, but it is the interpretation of the judges that makes the launches go ahead without hour.
The open date is usually used, above all, in evictions due to housing occupation and criminal matters, but in Barcelona there have already been procedures in evictions for non-payment and by civil means. From the Rogle, although they do not reject the legitimacy of the judges, they recognize that there is a lack of specific regulation in this regard, and warn that, when a procedure of this type is approved, there is usually a social movement or platform or support for the affected person.
From the PAH they assure that these procedures have been present for years, and warn that “after the pandemic we will see more evictions with an open date”, and also, Mas de Xaxàs questions “the rest of the judges who are complying with the law to unify this and create doctrine.
To avoid this reality, on the platform they demand “a housing law that ends evictions without a housing alternative” and criticize that the coalition government “in the face of the drama and scourge of evictions with more than one million since 2008, continue to propose measures that are aware that they will not work.
–
– .
