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Households

Unoccupied housing

CONTEXT

According to Law 18/2007 on the right to housing, empty dwellings are those that are permanently unoccupied without due cause for a period of more than two years. Due causes are moves for work reasons, moving for a situation of dependency, the abandoning of a home in a rural area in the process of population loss, and when ownership of the home is subject to a lawsuit pending resolution.

The abandonment of these homes generates a lack of maintenance that may lead to serious health condition problems in the interior that via the common spaces of the buildings will end up affecting the rest of the homes.

OBJECTIVE

• Detect and resolve cases of permanently unoccupied housing. 
• Prevent the deterioration of empty homes due to a lack of maintenance and thereby avoid possible unhealthy conditions in the buildings.
• Foster the occupation of empty homes, guaranteeing a decent home in suitable conditions for the population.

PROPOSALS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Proposals and recommendations for the administration

• Conduct a census of dwellings with signs of abandonment in order to have a clear picture of the situation. A survey on the ownership of dwellings with signs of abandonment could be associated with it in order to determine the reasons why they are vacant and to publicise the municipal services and offer measures to facilitate the incorporation of the home into the market, preferably the rental market.
• Declare non-compliance with the social function of the property, which in certain legally established cases leads to the start of the compulsory expropriation of the dwelling (Art. 5.3. of Law 18/2007).
• Open adversarial files for the compulsory transfer of empty dwellings to the administration, for a period of three years, to incorporate them into the pool of rental homes for social policies, in the case of empty homes that are owned by legal persons and provided that the following conditions are met:
  • The owner of the dwelling is a taxpayer, is not exempt, and is obliged to pay the tax on empty dwellings.
  • This taxpayer has empty dwellings in a municipality in which there is at least one family unit in one of the residential exclusion risk situations without a solution in relation to housing as defined in Law 24/2015.
• Activate or improve existing programmes to acquire empty homes and assign them for affordable rent:
  • Create a rental pool in the municipality (mediation or inclusion) or include municipal incentives in the existing pool:
    • Funding for minor adaptation interventions
    • Rebates on fiscal taxes, property taxes, waste taxes
    • Incentives for assigning the home to the pool
    • Insurance for non-payment
    • Payment of debts
    • Securing of the certificate of habitability and of the energy efficiency certificate
  • Purchase dwellings to assign them to affordable rent. Properties may be purchased through public purchase offers or by means of the right to first refusal or the right to redemption regulated by the Government of Catalonia in Articles 15 and 87 of Law 18/2007, of 28 December, on the right to housing, and in Decree-Law 1/2015, of 24 March, on extraordinary and urgent measures for the mobilisation of housing from foreclosures. The right to redemption issues the preferential right of acquisition to the administration for a plot, building or dwelling that has already been sold in the same conditions (price, terms, etc.) as the signed contract of sale.
  • Create municipal aid for the renovation of the interior of the dwellings if they are occupied and/or are to be assigned to affordable rent.
  • Negotiation with financial institutions for the transfer of empty properties.
  • Foster masoveria urbana programmes for unoccupied dwellings (the dwelling is yielded by the owner for an agreed term in exchange for its rehabilitation and maintenance by the assignees). The administration can provide support by stimulating various measures as aid for renovation, rebates on property tax, the dissemination of the concept of masoveria urbana and the contract model, professional training on construction, legal and technical support, creating a pool of dwellings and masoveria urbana tenants.
• Offer fiscal benefits in relation to certain local taxes for dwellings transferred to the council or that are included in the rental pool (property tax and taxes on construction and renovation, mainly).
• Foster disciplinary programmes and inspections.
  • Establishment of an inspection programme for empty dwellings.
  • Execution of foreclosures and the monitoring of dwellings in poor condition.
  • Penalties and preventive measures that correspond to detected infractions (not facilitating the inspection, not providing the required information, not inscribing the empty dwelling in the corresponding register (in the case of major property holders) etc.).

REFERENCE EXPERIENCES

LEGISLATION

• Constitució Espanyola. L’article 33 consagra el dret a la propietat privada limitat al compliment de la seva funció social, i un habitatge buit no la compleix.
• Reial decret llei 7/2019, d’1 de març, de mesures urgents en matèria d’habitatge i lloguer, que modifica l’article 72.4 de la Llei Reguladora de les Hisendes Locals (RDL 2/2004, de 5 de març)
• Llei 18/2007 del Dret a l’habitatge. Articles 5, 41, 42, 87 i ss, 108, 113, 123 i 124.
• Decret 75/2014, de 27 de maig del Pla per al dret a l'habitatge. Articles 9, 26 i 29.Llei 24/2015, del 29 de juliol, de mesures urgents per a afrontar l'emergència en l'àmbit de l'habitatge i la pobresa energètica. Article 7.
• Llei 4/2016, de 23 de desembre, de mesures de protecció del dret a l´habitatge de les persones que es troben en risc d´exclusió residencial. Article 15.
• Decret llei 1/2015, de 24 de març, de mesures extraordinàries i urgents per a la mobilització dels habitatges provinents de processos d´execució hipotecària. Article 4.
• Llei 14/2015, del 21 de juliol, de l'impost sobre els habitatges buits, i de modificació de normes tributàries i de la Llei 3/2012.
• Decret Llei 5/2019, de 5 de març, de mesures urgents per millorar l’accés a l’habitatge

STUDIES AND TECHNICAL DOCUMENTATION

• Amenós, J. 2017. Dictamen sobre el règim legal dels habitatges buits i les mesures que poden prendre les administracions locals. Consell Comarcal del Vallès Occidental.
• Ponce, J. Universitat de Barcelona. 2014. Dictamen jurídic relatiu a les possibilitats i requisits d’actuació de l’ajuntament de Terrassa respecte a l’habitatge buit o desocupat de titularitat privada en protecció de l’interès general.
• Valiño, V. (Coord.) 2014. Orientacions bàsiques pels ajuntaments interessats en mobilitzar habitatges buits. Observatori DESC, PAH, Ajuntament de Terrassa.
• Serra, A. Marc Jurídic adaptat a les noves realitats sobre les necessitats de l'habitatge: Bases legals i accions concretes. Ajuntament de Terrassa.
• CONFAVC; Celobert, sccl. 2017. Habitatge buit, necessitats d’habitatge i recursos existents a l’Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona. Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona. Desenvolupament Social i econòmic.

OTHER LISTINGS OF THE GUIDE

• Salubritat als habitatges 
• Manca d´habitatge

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