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A. Cabeza
Toledo
Tuesday, 15 April 2025, 14:48
In recent years Spain has been plagued by problems for people trying to rent properties and an incessant increase in squatting. While laws are not being sufficiently tightened and the property owners are not fully protected, there has been a proliferation of cases that have left homeowners totally defenceless, and sometimes the issue is made worse when it affects families with a disabled or elderly relative.
The story of Paquita, an 83-year-old woman who explained her case a few days ago on Spain's Cuatro television programme is just one of the cases that has just come to light. She claims she is being blackmailed by a tenant who is living in her family home in Carranque (Toledo).
"It has a lot of sentimental value. The house belonged to my mother," Paquita said in tears to the television cameras. She added that the tenant owes her 24 months' rent and cannot understand how, in spite of everything, she is accusing her of putting pressure on her.
The tenant has even tried, according to Paquita, to blame her for a suicide attempt because of the difficult situation she was living in. "She was crying her eyes out in court saying that she had slashed her wrists because of me," she added.
Paquita chose to rent the house that she had inherited from her mother to earn some extra income and to be able to enjoy her retirement. She rented it to a couple and a woman with a child, for 425 euros a month. The couple left and from then on the other tenant, Beatriz, stopped paying the rent and the problems began.
"It's very hard," Paquita told the programme and added that she is unable to make ends meet without the rental income. The programme was able to talk to Beatriz, who confessed that her situation was complicated and that at the moment she had no nowhere else to go and was unable to pay.
She also claimed to have had "some problems" with Paquita. First "because she had to make some repairs to the house, but she didn't do them," but also because the old woman had been aggressive towards her on some occasions and had threatened her that her children would be taken away from her.
The case is currently going through legal proceedings but won't be resolved until at least September. Meanwhile, Paquita says she can only continue "suffering and fighting" because, she says, "I am only asking for what is mine".
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