Laurence Dollimore
A ‘SHAMELESS’ squatter has outraged Spain after taking over a six-bedroom home renting out five of the rooms – all the while refusing to pay rent to his pensioner landlord.
Maria Lago, 78, signed a contract in December 2023 with a Venezuelan man who said he was a doctor, with the deal arranged by a trusted real estate agency.
READ MORE: Spain’s new anti-squatter law will NOT protect everyday homeowners, warns expert
The pensioner, who suffers from a heart condition, was offering the large home on Calle Xeneral Pardiñas (pictured above), in the centre of Santiago de la Compostela, Galicia, for €1,100 per month.
The tenant paid one month’s rent but only €400 of the deposit, which Maria said she ‘let go’, believing the man ‘dressed in a suit’ to be genuine.
However in April of this year, he stopped paying rent, leaving ‘desperate’ Maria in a terrible financial predicament. He now owes her at least €9,000 in unpaid rent and bills.
The retiree lives on a state and widow pension equalling €1,200 per month but is forced to pay her tenant’s water bills and community fees, amounting to around €250 per month – plus electricity costs.
Incredibly, the tenant began renting out five of the six rooms on property portal Idealista for €400 per month each.
It means he is raking in up to €2,000 per month, and all in undeclared cash, reports La Voz de Galicia.
“I need the rent from this flat to live and I can’t afford all the expenses this is causing me,” Maria told the same newspaper.
Maria discovered the rooms were being rented out when she attended a meeting with the owners in the building.
“They told her that they were fed up, that people kept coming and going, often drunk, and making noise,” explained one of her daughters.
“She has a heart condition and all this is affecting her a lot.”
When they offered to find the tenant a smaller flat after he failed to pay the rent, he allegedly refused and told Maria: “I’m going to live in your flat.”
Despite the contract with the tenant ending in June, he has refused to leave, forcing Maria to take it through the courts.
She said: “He told us that he was not going to pay or leave, that he had sought advice and that we were not going to kick him out of the flat.”
The eviction trial is scheduled for December 9, but faces being suspended because the squatter has requested a certificate from the local council declaring him a ‘vulnerable person’ – which would grant him more protections under the law.
“They know how everything works and they laugh at it all, they are making fun of us,” Maria added.
Maria was self-employed her entire life. She knew she would struggle to live off her pension so decided to rent out the home where she and her husband and her children had lived together.
At a recent meeting she was also told she had to pay €5,000 for renovations to the building.
Her daughter added: “We are helping her financially because she can no longer meet those expenses… we are really worried about her.”
