Irregularities detected in the works to carry out 'colivings' in Barcelona

BarcelonaWhen the neighbors of Vandor buildings In Barcelona, they receive the letter announcing that the fund is the new owner of the property. They only have two certainties: that whatever their circumstances, their rental contract will not be renewed, and that while they remain in the apartment, they will have to live with the construction work to convert it into colivings the remaining apartments as they become vacant. But these construction projects are under scrutiny. Residents complain that they are often carried out irregularly: without a license or with minor permits to circumvent, they warn, the obligation to reserve part of the building for social housing. In some cases, the City Council has been able to corroborate these irregularities. Therefore, residents are demanding more inspections from the council.

This fund's modus operandi when it buys a building is always the same. They notify the residents of the change of ownership, announce that their rental contracts will not be renewed, and, as some apartments become vacant, immediately begin construction to add more rooms and bathrooms. This forces the people who remain in the building to live with the constant noise and disruption from the construction, but it has also allowed them to witness some irregularities in the work firsthand. Patricia Rodríguez is an architect and lives in one of these buildings, on Concordia Street. There, he explains, work has been carried out on eight houses even though permits had only been requested for three. "I told them that if they didn't stop, I would sue them, and they halted the work for a while, but then they continued as if nothing had happened," he says.

Faced with this situation, Rodríguez has written to the City Council and the Sants-Montjuïc district on several occasions. Like her, other residents have also contacted her. Some have done so through the lawyer Jordi Aguilera, a partner at the firm Cuch-Aguilera Legal. In June, Aguilera submitted a request to the five districts where the 13 Vandor blocks are located in Barcelona—Eixample, Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, Ciutat Vella, Les Corts, and Sants-Montjuïc—requesting the files related to the construction work that had been carried out. In the request, he warned that the company might be violating the regulations that require reserving 30% of social housing in large-scale renovations.

A complaint prior to early 2024

However, long before this instance, the City Council had already received another complaint alerting them to possible irregularities in up to ten properties owned by Vandor. According to ARA, in March 2024, an anonymous complaint was filed with the council alerting them to how construction work was being carried out in apartments in all these buildings without the required permits. The complaint also alleged that in some cases electricity was being fraudulently consumed during the construction, the presence of asbestos was being concealed, energy performance certificates were being falsified, and residents were being pressured to leave. It further warned that by requesting fewer permits than necessary, the company was attempting to circumvent the requirement to reserve 30% of the properties for social housing. To date, this newspaper has not received the City Council's files on these construction projects. Regarding the complaint submitted on behalf of the residents, they have only received a response from the Sarrià-Sant Gervasi district. There are three different outcomes. In the case of 26 Amigó Street—which was not included in the anonymous complaint of March 2024—the City Council confirmed in July of this year that unlicensed construction work was underway on three floors of the building, affecting facades and courtyards. Therefore, it ordered the work to be suspended until Vandor brought it into compliance. On August 19, the council ratified this decision.

In the case of Muntaner 448, the inspection report arrived more than a year after the anonymous complaint was received in March 2024 and concluded that no irregularities existed. The case was closed. However, at Balmes 335, the situation is different. This is the first building Vandor acquired in Barcelona in 2019. Two residents remain with indefinite rental contracts. The rest of the apartments are now all co-living spaces. In this case, the City Council's inspection report arrived eight months after the anonymous complaint. Inspectors discovered that one of the mezzanine apartments had been converted into a commercial space—a common area with vending machines, dining tables, and sofas—without any permits. After several appeals processes, the City Council ruled that Vandor must demolish the modifications and restore the apartment to its original state. It also warns of repeated coercive fines ranging from €300 to €3,000 if the order is not fulfilled. This is all without prejudice to initiating disciplinary proceedings for carrying out irregular works.

More inspections for the 30%

Aguilera is still awaiting the remaining files, which he expects will reveal more irregularities. In a conversation with ARA, however, he maintains that the underlying problem is that Vandor has used these infractions to circumvent the obligation to allocate 30% of these buildings to social housing: "If all the licenses had been requested, it would have become clear that this was a major renovation project. That's what they really wanted to do," he concludes.

From the Rental Companies Union, Enric Aragonès accuses Jaume Collboni's municipal government of failing to prosecute the fraud related to the 30% requirement. "First, they tried to dismantle the 30% measure, and seeing that they couldn't, they've opted for another strategy: not applying it and saying nothing," he criticizes. He also condemns the imposition of "laughable" coercive fines that "don't discourage anything" instead of initiating sanctioning proceedings with higher fines.

Aragonés gives as an example the case of a other coliving —in this case, not owned by Vandor but by New Amsterdam Developers (NAD)— on Sant Agustí Street in the Gràcia district. Here, after complaints from neighbors and repeated calls from the Barcelona Ombudsman, the City Council conducted an inspection that also revealed unauthorized construction work in two of the building's apartments and ordered the demolition of the structures. When this was not done, at least two coercive fines of 500 euros each were issued. The company charges approximately 2,700 euros for renting rooms in a single apartment. In this case, in May, the City Council stated that it would investigate whether the project constituted a major renovation and, therefore, whether the 30% tax could be levied.

Municipal sources emphasize that "guaranteeing access to decent and affordable housing is a priority for the municipal government" and highlight that "among all the measures being implemented to expand the city's public housing stock, work is also underway to regulate seasonal and room rentals." In this regard, they are confident that the law to be approved by the Catalan Parliament this Thursday "will allow for a better approach to the phenomenon of co-living spaces and room rentals in Barcelona." "Until now, it has only been possible to address it by detecting possible urban planning violations, such as illegal construction, which have been duly penalized," they point out.

At the time of publication of this report, Vandor had not responded to ARA's offer for comment.