They take the Barcelona City Council to court for not enforcing the 30% protected housing reserve

BarcelonaThe conflict between Barcelona residents affected by co-living and the Barcelona City Council will end up in court. This Saturday, the Tenants' Union (Sindicat de Llogateres) announced the filing of an administrative litigation against the city council due to "municipal inactivity" in enforcing the 30% affordable housing reservation in various buildings owned by the Vandor fund.

The appeal challenges the city council's silence regarding the request that the Union registered on March 13 in the Eixample district. At that time, residents asked the City Council to enforcethe files from its licensing and inspection department, which had determined that Vandor had carried out construction work without the proper legal authorization to evade the 30% affordable housing reservation.

In all cases, the inspectors considered that the work to convert the flats into room rentals exceeded the permits requested by Vandor, that the layout of the flats had been modified, and that work had been carried out on facades, courtyards, and other common elements. Because of all this, the files maintained that it could be a major renovation and that, therefore, the owner could be required to comply with the 30% affordable housing reservation.

Last December, ARA explained that in March 2024, the City Council had already received an anonymous complaint regarding Vandor. That complaint warned of how, in about ten blocks owned by the fund, construction work was being carried out in flats for which no license had been requested and that the intention was to evade the obligation to reserve 30% for affordable housing. In the same news report, it was stated that the city council had already detected irregularities in at least two blocks in Sarrià-Sant Gervasi.

In addition to the litigation filed for the building at 538 Consell de Cent, the Tenants' Union will file two more appeals in the coming months for the properties at 206 Nàpols and 219 Rocafort. In total, the union calculates that with Vandor's failure to comply with the 30% reservation in these blocks, the city has lost fourteen affordable housing units.

Vandor defends itself

In a statement collected by the ACN, Vandor clarified that it submitted the relevant allegations and appeals following the reports made by the Barcelona City Council. The company considers that there is a "fundamental technical discrepancy" in the assessment of the works, in accordance with external specialized advice from an architectural firm. In this regard, the company defends its position based on "objective architectural criteria" and does not consider "that a situation was generated in which 30% of social housing must be reserved", since the reform carried out "is not major construction work". According to the company, the allegations are pending resolution by the City Council and Vandor reiterates its "full willingness to dialogue" to reach an agreement.