untitled design

The Constitutional Court annuls the Government’s housing decree law

The Constitutional Court has annulled the decree law of urgent measures to improve access to housing promoted in 2019 by the Government, which forced large holders to offer social rent to vulnerable people who illegally occupy a home.

Legal sources have informed Efe that in plenary session the court of guarantees has declared for unanimity the unconstitutionality of the Catalan housing decree, which was appealed by more than 50 PP deputies in Congress, in a ruling that takes immediate effect. These same sources assured that the court considered the possibility of postponing the sentence due to the start of the electoral campaign.

The main argument for this decision has to do with a formal issue due to the insufficiency of the legal channel used, which was approved by decree instead of by law.

The PP presented this appeal considering that the decree-law approved by the Government violates the right to private property and does not respect a fundamental right that applies throughout Spain.

Alejandro Fernandez, leader of the PPC, assured last year that his party would not allow Catalonia to become “a kind of squatter paradise” and a “hell both for the owners and for those families that do not squat no floor “.

Months before, the Council of Statutory Guarantees, whose decisions are not binding, considered this regulation unconstitutional, in an opinion issued at the request of Cs, after the Parliament gave the green light to the decree of law promoted by the Catalan executive .

The Council of Statutory Guarantees considered “irrational” and arbitrary “some of the precepts of the decree law, since it defines as” empty house “the one that is occupied illegally and forces its owner to offer a social rent before initiating a legal demand This decision was based on the fact that the “illegal occupation” of a house does not in practice imply “a title of access to the possession” and that the obligation to offer a social rental would imply the imposition of a “forced contract”.

“It seems that the legislator has wanted to avoid the eviction of occupants of homes without a qualifying title who do not have a residential alternative. And to achieve this, he opts to convert what was initially an illegitimate deprivation of possession into a rental relationship of a duration minimum equal to that provided for in the urban leasing legislation “, the Council warned.

For this reason, the Guarantees Council warned that establishing sanctions and fines for the lack of a social rental offer, prior to the filing of a lawsuit to recover the occupied dwelling, could be considered a “restriction” or a “brake” that “unduly obstructs” the judicial process to recover the “illegally lost” possession.

You may also like

Get the latest

Stay Informed: Get the Latest Updates and Insights

 

Most popular