The Court of Instruction number 2 of Arrecife has acquitted the defendants of a minor crime of usurpation for occupying the unfinished and abandoned houses of the Pechiguera Lighthouse and has urged the property to initiate a civil process to evict the residents.
The Chamber of Jerónimo Alonso has indicated in the judicial ruling that La Voz has been able to access that "this type of crime cannot become a legal instrument to recover possession of real estate" and points out that there are "preferential and specifically foreseen routes" in the civil sphere.
Coral Homes SL, owner of the abandoned skeletons of Pechiguera, filed a complaint in December 2023 with the Court against the occupants of the houses. However, the judicial resolution indicates that the criminal protection of the property cannot reach "those who have not shown any interest in their property for such a significantly long time".
Thus, it adds that the criminal route "does not protect abandoned properties, in a state of deterioration" and that for there to be "criminal significance" and differentiate it from illegal occupation, the entity must prove that "before the occupation, it held the effective and real possession of the property in question". That is, demonstrate that "it used the property and allocated it to its social function and the object that constitutes its investment or banking business, either for sale or rent", that "these are not assets that it maintains in a situation of abandonment or without showing economic or productive interest of any kind" and that, in addition, "it takes care of the taxes and expenses generated by it".
The first summons for this complaint against a group of residents living in the abandoned houses and skeletons summoned the occupants of the houses in May. The entity did not appear then. Then the hearing was postponed until this November, when they were finally acquitted.
In the judicial ruling, the Court of Instruction states that the entity Coral Homes SL "did not provide information on the date on which the construction works were paralyzed and the cause of said paralysis, nor on the administrative situation of the complex".
In statements to La Voz, Jaime Andrés, one of the residents of the area, celebrates this judicial decision and hopes that in the time in which the civil procedure is developed, he can find an affordable rent in which to live with his family.
