The apartment in Puerto del Carmen where two people were arrested for trespassing was actually already illegally occupied, according to the administrator of the complex, Mariano Andrés Gallego, who wanted to clarify the information released this Tuesday by the Civil Guard. He claims that these two people were not trying to occupy this house, but to evict it.
According to him, one of the arrested had a rental contract with the owner, who is British and does not reside on the island, while the other is in charge of maintenance of the urbanization. "The alleged new tenant told him that he was moving and asked him for help to take out a couple of things. As he is hired by the community, he often enters the apartments if the owners ask him and he was helping him," he says.
Regarding the alleged landlord of the house, who according to the Civil Guard has numerous police records, the administrator of the property insists that he had a rental contract, although he does not know if he went to the apartment with the keys or if he forced the door. What he does confirm is that the owner signed that alleged contract knowing that the house was occupied.
According to the agents who intervened in this arrest, when they arrived at the house they verified that the door was broken and that these two men were taking furniture out of the apartment, "as well as any personal object that could suggest that it was an inhabited property, such as family photographs or even a baby cot belonging to the child of the residents."
Regarding the version now provided to La Voz by the administrator of the complex, the Civil Guard has not confirmed whether it was an occupied house, but they have stressed that in any case it is a crime to try to recover it by force, since what should be done is to file a complaint and wait for the judicial resolution.
In this regard, the administrator of the property questions that in that complex alone he has already filed up to four complaints on behalf of the owners for the occupation of different homes, without any of them having been evicted so far. And he says the same happens in other complexes on the island that his company manages.
"It's always the same modus operandi. They go looking for empty apartments of foreigners who live in England or Holland, who cannot travel here to report it. They force windows or doors during the night and then usually place a woman with a child there," he says, assuring that they even "falsify" rental contracts with the data they find from the owners in the letters they receive in their mailboxes. In fact, he even points to a possible organized network, since in the cases he knows he maintains that almost all the apartments are being occupied by Moroccan or sub-Saharan people.
However, the Civil Guard denies this point and affirms that they have no knowledge of any organized group. What they do confirm is an increase in the occupation of empty houses, but linked to the economic situation, unemployment and the high price of housing, and not to any specific nationality.
Regarding the two detainees, the administrator of the property affirms that a quick trial was already held last Friday and they are now awaiting sentencing. In this regard, he insists on especially defending the maintenance worker, I.B.G., since he maintains that he was simply "helping" an alleged tenant. In fact, he explains that he personally went to testify when he was notified that this employee was going to be arrested.
In addition, he emphasizes that in the meantime they are still waiting for the trial to be held against the woman who resides in the house with her baby, and who he claims occupied it illegally. "We have had these same problems in Playa Blanca and a week ago in Loma Verde, although there, fortunately, they had just arrived and the two who were trying to enter were found with a crowbar and a screwdriver," explains this property administrator, who emphasizes the problems that this also entails for the communities of neighbors, since in many cases the people who occupy homes "use common services and common areas and tap into the water and electricity," with all the owners having to bear the costs.
