WE SPEAK TO THE SQUATTERS

Letters

Contributor / 2008-05-25 14:41:11

I have lived happily in Spain for five years. I love the Spanish people with their gentle, helpful ways and their cultures. Therefore I really feel that I need to address the issue of your article "We Speak To The Squatters."

I found this was very disturbing. Many English people have come over here to live, but they have never adjusted to the Spanish life style. This seems to cause many problems as they want the sun, life style and to benefit from the lower prices, but they are not willing to accept the Spanish way of life and the laws here.

This particular issue calls the Spanish family squatters, when through no fault of their own, they have not been able to pay their rent. From your article, I understand that the Spanish family had a legal contract with the agents i.e. Real Sale España. Therefore the owners of the house must also have had a contract with this company and if the company has disappeared surely that is not the fault of the tenants. I question why the owners have left it until now to go to such lengths to do something about it. Why did they not contact the tenants when this all happened rather than have some bully boys going to the house and waving pieces of paper and gesturing them to get out - probably in a language that they didn't understand. What was wrong in politely asking for a meeting where the issue could be addressed civilly?

As far as I can see from the article the tenants did all that they had to do and drew a blank, so they waited until someone came to collect the rent. It appears that the aggressors were the English people, as the Spanish people asked for it to be resolved in a peaceful manner, even giving a contact number. This does not appear to be someone who is either squatting or trying to dodge their responsibilities? I also don't think it is unreasonable for the family to have time to find alternative accommodation. How would the other couple like to be on the streets with a six year-old child?

The owners are the people who need to retrieve the back lying rent and so it is their problem to do so. If they go with unscrupulous estate agents they must be prepared for this kind of thing to happen. Their problem is with the people who they employed to rent their property and because they have been let down by them, they are taking their wrath out on the Spanish family. I was told that they had gone with an interpreter, who also was aggressive. The thing I wonder about is was the English couple legally registered to rent out their property in Spain, and were they paying Spanish tax on the income they had received to date or am I opening another big can of worms?

I have often seen British people verbally abusing Spanish staff in shops and restaurants because they don't speak English, why should they? This is their country, their language and their laws, if the Brits can't accept that then it is time that they went back to the country that they couldn't wait to get away from. We live in Spain and I hate the fact that more and more immigrants are trying to make it into little Britain.

We have been welcomed here, and now a lot of Brits want to take over, I feel privileged to be allowed to live here but I will always remember that first and foremost Spain belongs to the Spanish.

A Spanish resident

Tags: Property Rentals