Detectives spied on them for half a year to evict them from their home: "They came for us because we're older."

BarcelonaFrom outside, no lights can be seen in the apartment. Nor can they be seen from the interior courtyard, where the only window overlooking it is illuminated. Verbal evidence comes from the building's caretaker: he says the residents of 3º 2a have not lived there for a long time. There are also photos of their empty parking space and a definitive note: "You knock on the door and no one answers."

This is some of the evidence used in June 2022 to file charges against Lluís and Trini, two Eixample residents aged 79 and 73. The apartment under investigation, located on Carrer Pau Claris between Consell de Cent and Diputació, was their home: the fund that had bought the building where they still live a year earlier had sued them for abandoning their home. But that wasn't all. That piece of paper also meant something else: they had been spied on for months by a detective hired by its owner.

"We didn't notice at any point. The lawsuit came on a floppy disk, and the lawyer printed everything out for us: they checked the parking lot, asked neighbors if they knew us (we didn't), and also approached the building's goalkeeper, who said we weren't going to him" and the "el AHORA" from the dining room of their house. "It's a humiliation," says Trini, his wife. "They came looking for us because we're elderly," she adds.

Sales, construction, and foreigners

The fund bought the building in April 2021 and decided to stop renewing contracts: some residents died, and others ran out of rent. All the apartments have been renovated and sold since then. All except theirs, which was an old-fashioned rental and therefore couldn't follow the same path. "Now we can't even find any neighbors; our neighbors are second homes for foreigners: Turks, Swiss, Egyptians, Asians, and even French," Trini adds. They have sold for €890,000 without a parking space, she says. Three years have passed since the lawsuit was filed in June 2022, and the case is still pending resolution.

"They played on our age, our fear, and the noise from the construction," Trini laments. For months, they saw smoke coming from the floorboards, cracks in the walls, and also episodes of brittleness: one day they arrived home and all the dishes were on the floor of the pantry. They had fallen due to the tremors during renovations, which also forced them to wear hard hats inside their home. They also had to shore up beams, and one day they were locked inside: the front door was blocked by the movement of the structure. "We had to leave the house; it was unbearable," explains Lluís, who assures that they have fought to get all the damage fixed and that, in the process, the property manager and the owner have responded to their demands.

The persecution went beyond Barcelona. The complaint included a series of photographs of their second home. "They came to photograph me in Pallars. The complaint itself states that the use of the Barcelona apartment is sporadic, and that we live in Cerdanya, but it's a village in Pallars with ten inhabitants," says Lluís. This wasn't the only error in the complaint, to which they had to respond within twenty days.

What does the law say?

"We spent the whole wedding talking to lawyers," says Lluís. He began working against the clock with invoices and direct debits to prove it was his habitual residence. "A notary came to photograph that it was a non-abandoned apartment. He held a trial and they put a face to the detective. They proved that their apartment does not face the street and also claimed that the room in the interior courtyard is not very active, since it belongs to their daughter, who no longer lives with them. "She came and didn't remember anything," adds the Barcelona ruling.

Rental contracts prior to May 1985 are governed by the Urban Leases Law of 1964, amended in 1994, which establishes that contracts can be extended indefinitely if the tenant so wishes, unless it can be proven that the home has not been occupied. A hospital admission - and the burden of proof lies with the landlord. "And that must be demonstrated, and one way is through low utility consumption, but not always, since the jurisprudence is varied. "alone," Helena Gallardo, a lawyer specializing in real estate law, told ARA. However, another court in the Zamora Court did rule that low consumption proved the low occupancy of a home. "Neighbors, the city is dying. There is no longer any coexistence," Trini laments. They feel expelled by a financial system that, says Lluís, has found in Barcelona's real estate sector a sweet spot for making its savings profitable. "They invest in these foreign companies that buy entire properties and then they are extracted. They don't even know it," he adds.