The Union of Tenants of Catalonia has warned that “la Caixa intends to evict a family in Salou from an official protection flat that they have always paid for”. In a press release, the organization has assured that “the rental contracts are not renewed and more than 50% of the apartments in the building are left empty”.
La Quica and her husband, about to be evicted
As explained by the Union, Quica and her husband are planning to evict their home on February 5 in Salou, after living for six years in a flat in the housing development of official protection that Obra Social La Caixa built in Salou in 2009.
The couple, as indicated in the Union’s press release, applied to the public call offered by the City Council and obtained a five-year rental contract, although they were informed that at the end they could extend it or they would have purchase option But they didn’t know that the development’s social tenancy regime, which obliges the property to keep the flats occupied, was only for 10 years.
Half of the HPO apartments in Salou, unoccupied
From the year 2019, when the social rental regime ended, “Obra Social, dissolved and now established as ImmoCriteria (CriteriaCaixa), has dedicated itself to not extending any rental contract and to expel all families to market the homes”, according to the Union’s complaint.
In this sense, the Union warns of a “grotesque situation” in the HPO development in Salou: 40 of the 80 floors of the building are completely empty and without fulfilling their social function.
Thousands of tenants affected in Catalonia
The situation of Quica and her husband, however, is not exceptional. According to the figures of the Catalan Tenants’ Union, “there are 2,000 homes in almost forty HPO developments built by Obra Social between 2002 and 2012 that are in various situations of deregulation and that allow ImmoCriteria to evict and commit abuses and systematic harassment of their tenants”.