Summer is coming to an end and there are many people or families who have decided to go on vacation, but many of them are afraid to return home and find the house or apartment occupied, so in this article we are going to talk about this controversial topic to try to know what to do if my house is occupied?

We know that this topic is very controversial and we are going to try not to hurt anyone’s sensibilities, so hold on, this is going to be tough.

What to do if my house is occupied?

The first thing we are going to define here is occupation.

Occupation, contrary to what we all think, is not a legal term and is not included in the Penal Code.

This term has been coined colloquially by society and the media, and defines the fact by which a person settles to live in a property that does not belong to him.

With this the problems begin, in itself, the occupation is not typified in the Spanish legal system as a crime, so it is not possible to use this concept, that of occupation, to initiate a legal action.

In order to do so, we have two legal figures at our disposal.

The first is usurpation and the second is home invasion.

La Vanguardia – Arenys de Mar

Usurpation of housing

This is easy, the usurpation of housing is the illegal occupation of an uninhabited house without the consent of its owners.

Example: Someone enters a dwelling and makes it their residence

This is a crime according to our law and its penalty is an economic fine because the property is not considered a home for justice.

Breaking and entering

Here we are going to go faster, since this would be the occupation of the dwelling without the authorization of the inhabitant.

Example: We return from vacation and someone has turned our “dwelling” into their residence

So things seem to be going purple

What constitutes a dwelling?

The dwelling is all real estate that is used as a residence or domicile and a place for carrying out private activities, so within the dwelling we have:

• inside the house
• housing annex
• a van
• hotel room
• tent

At this point a question that always jumps to the fore insofar as the term dwelling is so significant.

Is a second residence considered a home?

We usually mistakenly think that no, that a second home or vacation home is not a home, but the truth is that it is.

Any closed space in which its owner spends the night or keeps his belongings is considered a dwelling and here, gentlemen, it is already clear.

I have returned from vacation and they have occupied the house

If when you return from vacation you find the house occupied, we are going to tell you the things that you have to do and those that you don’t have to do.

We’ll start with the things not to do.

What not to do if your home is occupied?

An occupation is a very dramatic moment in people’s lives, it represents a violation of one of the basic pillars of our society, private property, our place of rest and our life project.

In this case it is easy to get very nervous and want to take the law on your own.

This is the first thing not to do.

• Get nervous
• Take the law on your own
• Get aggressive

Unfortunately, none of these options is going to help us solve the problem and possibly make our situation even worse.

So, what to do if my house is occupied?

None of the options that we have at our disposal are going to please us, but here we go.

The first thing to do is call the police, and we have to do it right away. If we are lucky and we catch them in the “act” it can be considered a flagrant crime and the eviction is immediate.

But either way, you have to notify the police.

Then we have to file a complaint for the record and then find a good lawyer.

On another occasion we will talk about the tricks to avoid or reduce the chances of them occupying the house. For that we will talk to an anonymous person, E.B.M. that she is the president of a neighborhood association that, tired of suffering constant occupations in her urbanization, managed to put things in order with her decalogue of things to do to avoid occupation.

We will talk to her anonymously, because she tells us that: since she started this, she has suffered constant pressure and threats from powerful groups to make her stop doing this work, which, on the other hand, I want to emphasize that she does altruistically.