"Once they've gotten into the house, it's not easy to kick them out, not easy at all. You have to spend money on lawyers and wait and wait." These are the words of a local police officer from Arrecife. He talks about the couple who have occupied a house in Los Geranios, while the owner is in the Insular Hospital. He assures that the logical and civic thing to do is to report these facts, although he recognizes that justice is so slow and so overwhelmed that it is much faster to kick them out by force. "That's how it is, it's much easier to go and kick them out than to report it."
The job of this body is to identify the tenants, that is, the squatters, and if the judge decides so, to carry out the eviction. But this takes quite a while to happen. "They get into your house and can be there for months and months. Even in some cases they can even get the address, even though it already has owners," he says.
However, he assures that this is not usual in Arrecife and that there are no similar cases registered. However, he warns that "with the issue of the crisis people are in a hurry" so he fears that this decision to occupy someone else's home will spread. "They will say, well, I'll get in there for four or five months, as long as I can stand it, and I'll have a roof over my head for a while."
Crime of usurpation or trespassing
The usurpation of a home is classified as a crime in the Penal Code, in article 245. It includes two classifications. The first one says: "anyone who with violence or intimidation of people occupies a real estate property or usurps a real real estate right of foreign ownership, will be imposed, in addition to the penalties incurred for the violence exerted, a fine of six to 18 months, which will be set taking into account the utility obtained and the damage caused."
The second one contemplates: "anyone who occupies, without due authorization, a foreign real estate property, dwelling or building that does not constitute a dwelling, or remains in them against the will of its owner, will be punished with a fine of three to six months."
However, the family could try to get the judge to consider that the squatters have committed an alleged crime of trespassing. This would imply a prison sentence. Thus, article 202 of the Penal Code establishes that "an individual who, without living in it, enters a foreign dwelling or remains in it against the will of its inhabitant, will be punished with a prison sentence of six months to two years." In addition, "if the act is carried out with violence or intimidation, the penalty will be imprisonment of one to four years and a fine of six to twelve months."
