Housing, the new goldmine for detectives: "If we used to do two or three investigations a year, now we do fifteen."

Barcelona"We come across quite a few fake Airbnbs; they're very organized," explains a private detective at ARA, who asks that the name of his agency be withheld: "I don't want specific cases to be linked." He has also noticed another increase: the number of assignments to prove that the tenant is not vulnerable. These are two examples of the umpteenth symptom of the housing crisis, which has hit detective agencies hard through landlords, from small landlords to large investment funds, seeking to prove the irregularities they suspect their tenants have committed. And many end up in court.

"The owners who hire us are quite aware of this because our prices aren't exactly cheap," Lluís Bernal, director of the Kyu Detectius investigation services agency, explains to ARA. "A service easily costs around €2,000," adds this detective. In his office, they've also noticed an increase in housing-related claims: "We're getting a lot of cases; if we used to do two or four services a year, now we do fifteen," says Lluís, who has recently conducted all kinds of housing-related investigations: illegal subleases, fraudulent old-rent cases.

Many of these are complex situations that he doesn't question. "Sometimes I understand it too; people are just trying to survive," he says. But there are others who don't: "There are people who are very thick-skinned: they work illegally while receiving social benefits. The father and son each take home €3,000, and the wife doesn't work." Lluís mentions the specific case of tenants living in the apartment of an 86-year-old woman who needed to sell it to pay for her residency, but couldn't because her tenants had declared bankruptcy. "We've had to refute the vulnerability. In that case, it wasn't true," says the detective.

"We'd have to see if all this is a fact or just a suspicion, with owners looking to prove anything to justify a contract termination. In the end, we find ourselves in a battle to increase rents for a scarce commodity like housing, which is not so different from what happened with the pandemic with the resale of farmhouses," Jaime Palomera, researcher and director of Housing at the Barcelona Institute for Urban Research (IDRA), explains to ARA.

Businesses for profit

But these practices aren't unique. "Now there are people who rent a large apartment of 120 or 140 m² and sublet it by the room. They pay 1,200 euros and get a high return," the CEO of Cosmopolitan explains to ARA. "They're not just using cheap ones, like recording studios. They try to make the most of it," he adds.

In this regard, the director of RP Detectives Privats, Roger Ferrer, explains that they've found cases involving a brothel or even a badge-making machine business. squatters and they take advantage of the vulnerable situation," says this detective.

Investment fund

"I recently slept in a property that was being overexploited with illegal tourist rentals. In the last ten years, illegal tourist uses have increased fivefold," he adds, adding that foreign funds also hire them to conduct analyses of entire properties once they have made the purchase. "After presenting our evidence, there is generally a negotiation or the evidence is presented directly in court," he points out. Recently, ARA reported on the case of a retired couple who had been spied on for months by a detective hired by the fund that had acquired the property.

"There are investment funds that buy apartments or houses at public auctions and then conduct an investigation to determine whether the property is occupied and whether the tenants have minor children. They hire us and then negotiate," explains Aarón, of Sala Miralles Abogados. Housing-related services represent 10% of their portfolio and include subleases and old rentals.