He Supreme Court sides with tenants of protected housing in a key ruling for a judicial fight that spans a decade. The High Court considers that they will be able to buy the homes in which they rent at the same price as the vulture funds that acquired them.
As explained by the General Council of Lawyers, these public homes in which they lived were sold by the Madrid City Council in 2013 to investment funds. After this sale, the iTenants saw how the prices of their rents rose and they lost the right to preferential purchase of the properties, which is what was stipulated in the originally signed contracts.
The more than 1,800 officially protected homes (VPO) were sold to the fund, and after the operation the tenants were assured that this would only mean a change of owner. It was assumed that the conditions would continue to be maintained, something that was not the case, their conditions worsened and that was when the judicial claim process began.
A process that began with 4 homes and has set a precedent for more than 100 families
As explained by the Council, initially 4 families got the Provincial Court to rule in their favor after losing in the first instance. The fund that acquired the home appealed said ruling, which has reached the Supreme Court, which has ratified it, setting a precedent for the more than 100 affected for the sale of the public housing of the Madrid City Council to the investment fund.
Along the way of this judicial process, as they explain, many neighbors have been evicted or have had to abandon what were their homes due to changes in the conditions of their contracts, which they had signed to be able to reside in protected housing.
According to the lawyer who defended the case he “ruling marks a milestone by correcting the objectionable come from the EMVS (Municipal Housing and Land Company of Madrid) and the speculative fund”since both closed a VPO sale operation at ridiculous prices “ignoring the rights of the modest families who lived in them and who faithfully fulfilled their obligations as tenants.”
He also qualifies the sale of these homes as a “infamous” operation and trusts that this criterion will be maintained for the cases that remain pending so that the right that tenants have to buy their homes is recognized.
Benitez, according to himself, has handled more than 300 cases of evictions driven by vulture funds, and highlights their voracity, adding that hopes that the sentence serves to “protect working class families still facing evictions.”