PP and PSOE come together to stop evictions

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Woman's suicide prompted immediate reaction · Police union 'will defend' conscientious objectors · Only primary homes affected

MADRID In an unusual political move Government and Opposition got together on Friday to negotiate a law that will temporarily stop evictions for families unable to pay their mortgages. The move follows rapidly on an incident on Friday in Baracaldo, Navarre, in which a woman jumped from the balcony of her home when the police and other forces had come to evict her and her family. Over the weekend several banks gave orders to stop evictions before the law was in place, others have suspended the carrying out of orders until they know exactly what the new regulations say. The idea, according to PSOE Secretary General, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, is to 'correct the abuses that have been happening' and 'nobody will not have a home in Spain'.>>>

In Navarre, the President announced that in his region, all eviction orders will automatically have the help of an attorney, something that most of the families that have already been evicted did and do not have for lack of resources. However, the measures will apply only to first homes, not holiday homes. Another aspect that might change in the new temporary legislation, is that  in most cases, non-payment of a mortgage, followed by eviction, or even if the mortgagee chose to hand back the property, he or she was still liable for the amount owing, plus interest.

On Sunday the majority union for the National Police announced that it would defend and offer legal advice to those officers who refuse to execute an eviction.

There have been 46,559 court ordered evictions in the first three months of this year, and some 374.230 families have been affected since 2007.   In Andalucía alone, the number is well over 67,000. Some media say that this figure is very low as it doesn't take into account of those places where there is no notification service, particularly in small rural villages.

A radio commentator asked how it was possible that the banks that had received millions of euros to save them, were now 'throwing into the street the very people whose taxes saved them."  For over a year a movement has existed called Stop Deshaucios (or Evictions) and have appeared at many such legal evictions in the larger cities. The movement is derived from the 15-M protest movement that occupied main squares in cities all over Spain on March 15, from which similar movements arose in Europe, and the USA.