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SOUTH EDITION roundtownnews.com
Issue 684
23-29 NOVember 2012
No eviction says Torrevieja judge by Jan Gamm A TORREVIEJA court has suspended an eviction applied for by Bankia and due to be carried out Thursday 22nd November. It is the first eviction to be blocked specifically by the government’s recent decree of 15th November that prevents banks from evicting home owners in dire personal and financial circumstances. The lady at the centre of a three-year deadlock with the bank, whom we shall call Mabel, is Colombian and came to Spain in 2001. She settled in Torrevieja where in the boom years it was easy to secure credit with any bank to buy a home. Mabel worked in a real estate sales office with her then partner. In 2005, they decided to buy a resale flat near the beach at 137,000€ on a 1,200€ per month mortgage, which of course the bank would have surveyed. The property turned out to be in a poor state with constant plumbing problems and even flooding, requiring repairs to the tune of 7,000€. Mabel invested in a small hairdressing business with her sister but when the economic crisis hit, everything was lost and 40-year-old Mabel was now jobless, without a business and without the means to pay the mortgage. She also lost her green card because she
An eviction protest in Torrevieja
had no job – and she could not get a job without a green card! By now her sister and 16-year-old niece lived with her. The new law is of course still in the process of passing through various governmental administrative stages and may yet undergo further changes. Therefore it is as yet unclear how the courts may process applications to avoid eviction. In Mabel’s case, the judge has ordered a moratorium until an appropriate solution may be reached. Without the court’s decision Mabel would have been
out on the street with immediate effect. Mabel’s legal representative Venancio Parra said outside the court: “The haste with which this court has found a solution to my client’s problem is remarkable considering its heavy workload. My client is both pleased and grateful.” Parra went on to advise all those affected by evictions to inquire at the bar associations on how to benefit from the recent change in the law that allows, under certain circumstances, a moratorium on eviction.
Pharmacy lockout Helping the to continue Overwhelmingly 4-1 stuck to their guns and refused to supply customers with prescription medicines. PAGE 4
needy families PAGE 24