There are squatters in a flat in the building: what can the owners' association (the “comunidad de propietarios”) do?

First steps

• Call 112, the “Mossos d'Esquadra” (the Catalan police) or the local police straight away if any neighbour sees them getting in. If the entry has just happened, the police can act without waiting for a judge.
• Locate the owner, for example by requesting a land registry extract (“nota simple”) from the “Registro de la Propiedad”, the Land Registry. Then inform the owner in writing of what is happening, because it is the owner who can report the occupation or bring a claim for eviction.
• Keep a record of everything, with photos, minutes of the owners' general meeting, reports made to the police and police reports.
• Report any offences affecting the owners' association, such as damage to the common areas or illegal connections to the building's communal electricity or water supply. Each neighbour can also report any threats or assaults they suffer.

The owners' association cannot change the lock of the flat, cut off its utilities or remove anyone by force, either itself or by hiring a company that offers to do so, even if the occupiers have no right whatsoever to be there. Doing so could be a criminal offence and would put the association in the wrong when it is in the right. If the person in the flat is a tenant who has stopped paying, that person is not a squatter and it is the owner who must bring a possession claim.

The owners' association's claim

Since 2023, the Catalan code has allowed the owners' association to take action against occupiers with no legal right to be there who disrupt coexistence or damage or endanger the building, even if their identity is unknown. If they do not cause problems in the building, the owners' association does not have this route and what it can do is inform the owner. The procedure for prohibited activities is followed:

• The president, on their own initiative or at the request of a quarter of the owners, demands that the occupiers stop those activities by a means that leaves a record, such as a formal demand served by a notary.
• If they carry on, the owners' general meeting resolves to sue them. The claim is accompanied by that demand and by the certificate of the resolution.
• The court can order, as an interim measure, the immediate cessation of those activities. The judgment can order the occupiers to pay compensation for the damage and deprive them of the use of the flat for up to two years.
• Before suing, the law generally requires an attempt at negotiation. It has not been settled how this is to be done with unknown occupiers, so the prudent course is for the demand to offer them talks as well.

In the rest of Spain, the Horizontal Property Act (“Ley de Propiedad Horizontal”) does not expressly provide for a claim against unknown occupiers or for a report to the town council.

If the owner is a large-scale landlord

If the occupiers are in the flat without the owner's consent, the owners' general meeting can report the facts to the town council. If the town council confirms that those activities have taken place and the owner is a large-scale landlord, it follows this procedure:

• It requires the owner and the occupiers to prove within five working days whether they have any legal right to be in the flat.
• It requires the owner to prove within one month that a claim for eviction has been brought.
• If the owner does not do so, the town council can itself apply for the eviction and then recover all the costs from the owner.