She sues the City Council for not registering her: "How can I be a squatter if I pay the insurance on the apartment?"

MartorellRosa RR has been living in an apartment in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Martorell for over three years, but the City Council is preventing her from registering because she has no property title or rental agreement. She has requested entry to the register up to six times and has not received a response in each case, although the law interprets this silence as positive after the required three months have passed. However, she is still not registered.

Faced with this systematic noncompliance, Rosa and five other affected residents filed a petition an unprecedented joint lawsuit against the city council, but the judge of the Administrative Litigation Court No. 4 in Barcelona rejected the joint strategy and, without assessing the merits, has been left with only one individual claim, Rosa's. If the court rules in her favor in the proceedings, attorney Esther Sancho, who represents the affected parties, will process the remaining claims. The choice of Rosa, a Spanish national, over the other plaintiffs (all with foreign passports) is due to the fact that her name was at the top of the file, the attorney clarifies. "We hope this first lawsuit will pave the way for the rest", says Sancho, from the Lleida office Simeó Miquel.

Entities such as the Platform for the Mortgage of Baix Llobregat Nord or Papers for Tothom denounce that for years the council of Martorell, which led by the council member Xavier Fonollosa, denies registration to people who occupy an apartment or lack the owner's permit. "I don't feel like a squatter. I've never kicked a door or paid for keys," this woman explains, opening a folder full of papers. "What's more, I pay the electricity, water, and gas bills, and I don't owe a single monthly payment. And I also pay insurance for the apartment. How can they call me a squatter?" asks Rosa, an activist with the Platform.

Rosa is now 61 years old. First, an occupational illness took her out of the labor market, and, with a minimal pension, she stopped paying rent for an apartment in Hospitalet that she shared with her 20-year-old son. Luckily, she was able to avoid becoming homeless because a brother-in-law suggested they move into an apartment he owned where her mother lived in exchange for looking after them.

A few months later, this man lost his apartment due to non-payment of the mortgage, but the bank agreed to let the mother stay in usufruct for four years. Shortly after, the woman died suddenly, and the family gave Rosa permission to stay. However, the bank tried twice to evict her, but ultimately the eviction failed, and the mother and son continue to live there. He says he has tried several times to pay the bank a social rent, but to no avail.

A right of rights

The aim of the lawsuit is to force the City Council to register Rosa, as established by local law, which defines registration as a right and an obligation for both the administration and the citizenry. "Silence leaves citizens in limbo," says lawyer Sancho, for whom preventing registration constitutes "violating fundamental rights," since the registration is a "metadret," that is, a right that grants access to other basic rights and services.

For Rosa, not being on the register means she cannot exercise her right to vote, since she is not registered. But what worries her most is that the Primary Care Center (CAP) is not issuing a duplicate of the health card she lost a few months ago, and therefore, she must pay for the medication prescribed as a chronically ill person. She also cannot receive benefits for city residents, such as the city bus card, for example.

For the time being, in a preliminary hearing, the judge did not accept the class action lawsuit for procedural reasons, but did not make any judgment as to whether the City Council has violated fundamental rights. However, the Prosecutor's Office did point out that the council has the "legal obligation" to register without having to assess either the quality of the housing or the existence of a contract. From now on, the court is awaiting the incorporation of documentary evidence into the case. Martorell City Council has limited itself to commenting that the municipality will continue with its current registration policy and that, in any case, they will accept the court's decision when it comes.

The tightening of registration requirements is spreading across Catalan municipalities, warns the Network of Entities for the Register, which denounces how this exclusion leaves residents already facing more social problems in a vulnerable position, without taking into account the difficulties in accessing housing due to exorbitant prices and imposition. The latest act of this trend is Junts' proposal to exclude squatters from the register, such as case of Martorell, San Vicente de Castellet or Figueres.