Costa del Sol residents claim they have 'lived in fear' for four years due to brothers with Diogenes syndrome
People living in the same building have complained to the town hall and National Police that the squalor and stench from the flat "is unbearable", but say no-one is listening to them
The residents of the building located on Plaza Virgen del Mar, 4, a neighbourhood close to the Mirador del Carmen in Estepona, claim that they have been "living in fear" and "on edge" for more than four years because of two brothers who they describe as "drug addicts, alcoholics and with Diogenes syndrome".
They claim that the brothers accumulate rubbish not only in their flat but also in common areas, a situation which despite having been reported to the town hall, Local Police and National Police, has not been resolved "but in recent months has worsened", they claim.
"We have had this problem for years, there is no one here to stop it and this summer has been particularly horrendous and nobody is paying any attention to us to solve it," the residents, who prefer to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, told SUR. The stench coming from the brothers' flat, which has no running water, fills every corner of the building, they claim.
Fifteen families live in the apartment block and this situation not only affects them but also those in building number three and number five, who report verbal threats, physical aggression and "a situation that is unbearable".
"We have notified the town hall on several occasions and they have come to remove the rubbish, but a few days later the situation is repeated and the municipal cleaning services have told us that they cannot be here every week removing this rubbish, even though sometimes the rubbish and furniture they accumulate takes up space in the town, not just in the apartment building," they told SUR.
Four years
The first complaint and request for help from residents to the town hall was dated 17 December 2021 and expressly denounced "the accumulation of rubbish that a resident has been collecting for several months in the Plaza Virgen del Mar with the proliferation of rats". In it they requested "the cleaning of the rubbish that has been accumulating for months and which, after several requests to the town hall and directly to the cleaning services, has been ignored".
Other complaints to which this newspaper has had access have been received by the National Police in Estepona. Two of them are from this August and include information about verbal and physical abuse and even threats with a knife against one resident when he wanted to remove the rubbish that the brothers had accumulated at the entrance of the building.
The latest complaint made to the National Police is dated 12 September and stated that one of the brothers threatened a neighbour with a knife, saying "I'm going to stab you, I'm going to kill you", something which was recorded by the security cameras that the residents have installed at the entrance to the building and to which the National Police also have access.
The municipal social services team have not intervened to date, "they have done nothing", the residents told SUR. They haven't begun the process of clearing the brothers' flat, despite the residents' association request for a new appointment with them on 3 September to resolve the situation, an appointment that has been confirmed for 1 October, almost a month later.
"This situation is out of our hands, we feel very sorry for them because they were born here, we have known them since they were little, but we are afraid of how far we are going to go, especially after dark. Many residents have decided to go and live elsewhere or rent their flats to get out of this community, given the lack of solutions from the town hall and other authorities".
