"The apartment is falling on us, in pieces": the complaint of some neighbors of a Generalitat block

BarcelonaAntonio has been living with his apartment propped up for four and a half months, right on Gran Via in Barcelona. At the end of January, the ceiling of his room collapsed due to water leaks, and the Fire Department recommended keeping the props in place until a definitive repair could be made. A few weeks later, the same thing happened in the hallway, and shortly after, in another essential room of the house, the bathroom. The property owner fixed his bathroom, but this week the props are still holding up the beams in the bedroom and the hallway.

Antonio is now sleeping in what was previously his dressing room. He has stopped using several parts of the apartment for fear that they might collapse completely. "The apartment is falling on us, in pieces. The Fire Department even asked our upstairs neighbor to remove all the weight he had placed on what is the ceiling of our bathroom, just in case: they made him move the washing machine, which he now has on the balcony," he recounts. This newspaper has had access to all the reports from the Fire Department that attest to Antonio's version.

This neighbor also assures that his case is not isolated. "All the neighbors have similar problems," he points out. A quick look at the building reveals multiple cracks, original installations – in a century-old block – defective floors, and walls that, far from remaining straight, have yielded to the passage of years. "The same day I had workers at home doing the exploratory tests to check the condition of everything, I received a letter warning me that the rent was going up again according to the CPI," explains Antonio, who currently pays 1,780 euros per month. "I think that, as long as the apartment remains in this dilapidated state, the least they could do is give me a discount on the rent price," he complains.

The ownership of the building is not, in this case, a company. Nor a bank, nor any investment fund. Last December, the block passed into the hands of the Generalitat, after the Hospital Clínic — the previous owner — sold the entire building. The transfer of ownership operation began in 2024, when the healthcare center disposed of this and four more buildings as part of the hospital's future expansion works. A change that was not without controversy. These were apartments that some citizens had left to the hospital in inheritance and that years later the healthcare center put up for auction amid protests from residents. Finally, only one of the five blocks received an offer, the rest remained vacant and ended up in the hands of the public administration, which bought them. "At the time of the auction, it was already made clear that the buildings had many maintenance problems; in fact, no one wanted to buy them because of the investment required," adds Antonio.

The role of insurers

The fact is that, even though the roofs began to collapse in January, the problems have been going on for a long time. "There has been a very evident lack of maintenance in the building for years," insists this affected resident. "If you look at the facade, from the street, you will see that all the balconies have nets to prevent debris from falling onto the sidewalk," he continues. For a month and a half, he adds, they also have no electricity in the entrance hall or on the landing. "The intercoms obviously don't work and if we want to go down the stairs at night we have to use a flashlight," recounts this tenant who now accumulates photos and videos on his mobile of drips, leaks, and cracks that he himself is monitoring, to check if they are growing or not. "They tell us that the electricity is cut off due to non-payment, which we don't understand because we neighbors religiously pay our proportional share of this supply to the property," he questions.

Since February, several technicians and architects have inspected the building, without providing a definitive solution. "Everything is going very slowly. The insurance company of the Catalan Housing Agency, which is listed as the owner, told us that they were not responsible for the problems because they were pre-existing, that is, that they occurred before they took over the management," details Antonio. "Now I have stopped cleaning this room [the one that is propped up] because we have realized that sand and stones continue to fall from the ceiling every day. We have decided to leave it like this so that we can check every day whether what is falling is a lot or a little," he explains desperately.

A comprehensive "improvement plan"

Asked about this case, the Department of Territory of the Generalitat, which also has housing responsibilities, assures that it is aware of the problem and that "the Government is working on an improvement plan for the entire building" with "the will to help the tenants". Sources from the department add that a valuation of all the apartments has been carried out and that measures, such as shoring up, have been taken "to guarantee the safety" of the residents.

Antonio, however, demands speed. "The case goes from department to department and no one resolves anything for us. Furthermore, contacting the owner is very complicated, the only way we have to do it is by calling 012 between 9 am and 2 pm, and even then, it is very difficult to speak to someone," he laments. For this reason, the neighbors have begun to organize: among themselves, in the case of the building at Gran Via 534, and also with the neighbors of the other affected buildings. The Tenants' Union confirms that the families also contacted the union, which sent a letter to Incasòl and the Housing Agency of Catalonia to demand an urgent meeting and a thorough review of the structural condition of the properties. "We live with the fear that something serious will happen one day and we have been warning for a long time," concludes Antonio.