The siege property”has worsened over the possibility of easy profits boosted by homelessness”
Interviews with Manuel Andreu, president of the Federation of neighborhood associations Barcelona
In recent weeks, the media have reflected the concern of a significant portion of the
public opinion before the phenomenon of so-called mobbing property. We are talking about the siege and pressure
Some real estate companies and owners exerted on tenants who occupy old houses, or
low rents to force them to abandon their homes, some homes where, in most cases, have
lived a lifetime. The procedure followed is very similar in all cases: failing to perform the required
repair and maintenance services for homes and buildings affected, cut the supply without notice
water and electricity, causing damage to deliberately mislead tenants to act illegally and
echarlos power, denying the debit receipt of rent each month forcing them to move to the office of
owner to pay the receipt and even, sometimes resorting to veiled threats or explicit.
Once outside the house they occupied, the problems faced by neighbors evicted, especially
the most destitute and elderly, are serious. In most cases, it is not easy to find a new
rental apartment in an overvalued housing market (in the case of Barcelona, the most expensive of Spain) and, if
they have to adapt to a new environment and collective neighbors, something not always easy for people
older. In addition, the practice of siege property is generating a new kind of indigence, who comes to
increase, in the case of Barcelona, more than 180,000 poor, according to a report of the council, living in
the Catalan capital. Once on the street and without resources, the most disadvantaged have to resort to social assistance
in order to survive, since their pension is insufficient to cope with the costly in rents and
consumer goods of primary necessity. To all this must be added the psychological problems suffered by
victims of mobbing. For example, for an elderly person, the tense situation,
it is subjected to pressure and the efforts and formalities”extra”that is bound to carry out often leads to a
depression which is very difficult to escape.
Given this scenario unfair, those affected, through the relevant associations and neighbouring communities,
denounce the situation and require heavy-handed government to solve the problem.
In Barcelona, neighbors accuse the municipality, namely to maintain an excessive passivity and permissiveness
towards those responsible for the siege property.
To canvass the views of the main affected by mobbing real estate, E-Cristians has maintained a
conversation with Manuel Andreu, president of the Federation of neighborhood associations in Barcelona. His point
standpoint, to maintain direct contact with those affected and be directly involved in the search for
solutions to the conflict, will help us understand and make us more aware of a problem that creeps and
for over a decade but is”exploiting”report talks in recent days. The
problem directly affects large”forgotten”in this society of hedonism, consumption and
Competitiveness: the elderly.
— In recent months, the so-called property mobbing is more present in the media. In the
If Barcelona, in what areas is detected more and what kind of people are most affected?
— The so-called mobbing property, which ultimately is to besiege some people to leave their housing
speculative purposes, has worsened in recent months about thepossibility of easy profits
boosted by homelessness. This occurs primarily in Barcelona in the neighborhood of Ciutat Vella and the
Helmets old neighborhoods. Bearing on tenants and the elderly.
— What procedure typically used in real estate and what types of more serious actions carried out to force
its siege?
— The procedure is making life impossible for people affected and may involve repairing or do not
proper maintenance on the buildings, causing damage deliberate on the premises or even fool the
for tenants who engage in illegal and thus able echarlos. One practice that is not