British prosecutor Marc Robinson and his wife Sophie Robinson reported earlier this month that their second home in Ibiza had been squatted. The Robinson family were due to spend Easter in Ibiza but when they arrived they found that the lock on the property had been changed. The property was inherited by the wife and is the family’s usual holiday accommodation.
The owner, who has now recovered her home tells British media inews.co.uk how her vacation home was ransacked by squatters and calls for Spanish law to be changed to offer more protection to homeowners.
Sophie Robinson arrived with her two daughters at her three-bedroom family home in Cap Negret, in the municipality of Sant Antoni, on April 5 to find it had been squatted and the locks changed.
The Easter family vacation became the start of a four-week court battle to expel an organized gang of squatters who destroyed most of their furniture, stole everything inside the house, which was used as a “drug den,” he denounced.
Robinson explained to this media that organized gangs of squatters are exploiting a change in Spanish law which provides greater protection for those facing eviction in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
“I believe that [la ley] really needs to change. I understand why it was introduced. I understand it was the crisis. It’s being abused,” he said. “But now ordinary people are having their homes taken away…. If I pay my taxes and I am a good citizen, why can’t I have recourse to the law?” the squat owner stressed.
Sophie Robinson arrived at the property with her daughters, ages 21 and 16. When the court failed to grant an order to evict the squatters, she decided on April 11 to pay €5,000 to Desokupaa company specialized in evicting squatters.
But they couldn’t get rid of them. Worse yet, he said, since the original squatters left and were replaced by organized criminals.
“They installed an alarm system and cameras. We called the alarm company to say, how did they put an alarm system in a house that doesn’t belong to them?” recounted Robinson.
Court order for eviction
On May 5, a month after he discovered that the house had been squatted, Robinson’s attorney called him to tell him that he would the Police were about to enter the house after obtaining a court order to evict the squatters.
“The whole heating had been on constantlythe drains were overflowing, the mattresses were cut, the locks had been changed so many times that they had holes in the doors. Everything of ours was gone. It was all our stuff. There were traces of drugs everywhere. The damage will be thousands of euros.”said the owner.
“The most important thing is that we got the house back. We were very lucky. When it started, my lawyer said this could go on for years.”the woman explained.
The company Deokokupa uploaded that same day a video on its social networks where you could see the deployment of the Security Reserve Group of the Civil Guard to clear the house, as well as a telephone conversation of one of its workers with one of the Gypsy squatters, who threatened to “shoot each other”. “Desokupado in San Antonio Ibiza a villa squatted by a man of gypsy ethnicity and 3 North Africans with a new precautionary measure of the lawyers! The first day he was very cocky and told us that he was going to shoot us with a 38 special…. For special my colleagues of the GRS of the Guardia Civil when today they have arrested you!”, published the company Desokupa.
Family inheritance
Robinson hopes her insurance will pay for the damages, but she is not optimistic. She said the house is not a luxury villa, but “it’s close to her family’s hearts.”
“My father built it in the 1960s. It means something to all of us. We’ve had funny times, sad times. My father went there before he died. I’ve saved to keep that house. It means a lot to me. It was heartbreaking,” the owner explained.
The woman assured that the island had descended in the last 10 to 20 years “into a circle of hell.”
He also recounted that a German neighbor’s house on the same street had been squatted and believed they might be the same people after seeing one of them driving down the road.
“He asked if he could stay at my house since he can’t afford to stay in a hotel. He’s been away from home for a month,” Robinson lamented.
Robinson stated that squatters rent rooms to people who cannot afford to live in Ibiza, where prices have skyrocketed in recent years.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.