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Date Published: 16/06/2023

Calpe council worker squats in local home and demands money for renovations

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The City Council employee asked the Alicante homeowner to pay 40k for work he’d done on the squatted home

Calpe council worker squats in local home and demands money for renovations

A Spanish homeowner got a nasty shock when he arrived at his Calpe villa for a holiday and discovered it had been taken over by a squatter, or okupa. The man, who lives in Switzerland, was stunned when he learned the non-paying guest had been holed up in his property on the Alicante coast for more than a year.

But the plot thickened when it was revealed that the well-settled squatter was actually a municipal worker from Calpe City Council who’d been employed by the local government for more than 30 years.

Really making himself at home, the unofficial tenant had even completed several renovations at the villa, reportedly costing upwards of 40,000 euros.

Desperate to reclaim his holiday home, the owner contracted the services of a security firm specialising in getting rid of squatters, no easy feat since the Housing Law was reformed in Spain earlier this year.

Evicting the squatting handyman might be even more complicated in this instance, as he has demanded the owner of the property reimburse him for all the work he carried out before he will agree to leave.

Tackling squatters in Spain is a risky business that’s best left to the professionals as one British man found out earlier this month in Malaga. He was hospitalised following a vicious attack by three men when he confronted them about illegally occupying his Manilva apartment. Luckily, in this case, the unwanted visitors were collared by the police for a number of other crimes and the Brit was able to reclaim his home.

In other news: Drivers trapped and motorways closed as rainstorms wreak havoc in Alicante

Image: Calpe.es

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