It is one more example of the regulatory disaster that exists in the south of Gran Canaria because the apartment owners of Las Palmas break the unity of the market and have generated chaos where politicians do not want to enter because the norm never anticipated that digital marketing platforms would exist. . The squatter has even installed security cameras to record them and file a complaint against them for coercion.
In November 2023, a foreign family received a call from the south of Gran Canaria. A squatter had forced his way into the apartment and moved in, taking advantage of the fact that it was empty. Pending a court decision, they cannot evict, but must continue paying rent, electricity and water for the complex's pool to avoid default. Furthermore, the squatter, since there is no tourist control of these spaces, has broken the discipline of the community's internal market and has put the space on Airbnb as a tourist home, circumventing all the regulations.
The squatter, totally unknown to the family, entered three months ago, changed the locks and installed a surveillance camera. The foreign owner of the apartment, 89 years old, cannot travel to Gran Canaria frequently to protect the property for mobility reasons and does not know what Desokupa is. "Without a court decision, you as the owner cannot do anything. If we had taken matters into our own hands, we could have been prosecuted," the property tells Maspalomas24H.
Since the apartment was squatted, the family has so far spent more than 8.922 euros on lawyers and nothing at all. According to the law, they cannot cut off the water or electricity either, but must pay each month for what the squatter consumes. At the end of January his case was going to be tried in the courts of Gran Canaria. The old man came from Sweden to the trial but once in court the squatter filed an appeal and the hearing was postponed without a date. Before going to court they went to see the apartment to see how it was and discovered that the squatter had also rented his apartment through Airbnb. Because the squatter has behaved in a threatening manner, the family have been told not to contact him but can only stand outside the apartment and look inside.
