Madrid, a laboratory for evictions

These are hard times in Madrid, where evictions are unceasing. Early in July, Adolfo, 60, was evicted in the working-class neighborhood of Vallecas along with his daughter and grandson. Another eviction was scheduled for the following week, another the week after that and a further one on July 22 — a bleak month for the neighborhood, according to the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages (PAH). Three evictions in Vallecas in barely a month. In the Spanish capital, the scene repeats itself across different districts — Usera, Tetuán and Carabanchel — driven by court orders that in the Madrid region empty an average of six homes a day, according to data from the General Council of the Judiciary.Alongside evictions, the business of desokupación (the removal of illegal squatters) has also grown — a universe of companies linked to gyms, boxing clubs, and private security firms that operate in a legal gray area, combining intimidation with negotiation. The same dynamic is spreading to other regions such as Catalonia, Castilla–La Mancha, Andalusia, and Valencia, local neighborhood associations told reporters.“Last week they put glue in my lock and on Tuesday they cut the electricity cables,” says Ghita Hachemi, a tenant on Membezas Street in the Entrevías area, just as a technician enters her home to restore power after two days in the dark. “Every week they come up to the door and bang on it, insult me, or offer me money,” she says.Hachemi pays the Spanish bank BBVA the amount agreed with the firm as social rent every month. However, a year ago her home was sold to a new owner who wants her out as soon as possible and, since she has nowhere else to go, he has hired D&A, a desokupación company tasked with forcing her out of her home.Although D&A is not registered in the companies registry, it is common in the sector for these outfits to appear, change names, dissolve and then reappear under new initials, often registering with a share capital of just €3,000 ($3,400). They advertise aggressively on social media, promising to lawfully evict tenants in less than 24 hours.With fees ranging from €2,000 ($2,290) to €4,000 ($4,590) for a recovery, “they have popped up like mushrooms,” says Diego Sanz, a PAH member. “They change names, but they’re the same people. They emerged during the pandemic. A lot of them disappeared later, but now we’re seeing them come back,” he says of a business that has grown markedly in the last year following in the wake of the well-known desokupación company run by Daniel Esteve, Desokupa.Esteve, a former boxer and security entrepreneur, created the first brand in 2016 to turn the extrajudicial recovery of occupied homes into a recognizable, media-savvy business that coupled controversial methods with a political agenda opposing many of the government’s social measures. His formula combined physical intimidation, negotiation with occupiers, social media videos and a forceful aesthetic that brought public notoriety. New companies with similar methods then began to appear, ranging from surveillance and mediation to harassment.In Vallecas, the main clients are not investment funds or banks but small-scale speculators who buy homes at very low prices because they have what they contemptuously call a “bug inside” — meaning someone living there. Ghita Hachemi’s 70 square-meter flat, where a couple and four children live, was sold for €73,000 ($83,700) and is now on the market for €113,000 ($129,500). A tidy profit if they succeed in evicting the family.“They insult me, threaten me, and cut the electricity cables when they manage to get into the stairwell. They aim to frighten my whole family. My daughter missed her last exam after an anxiety attack caused by these savages,” she says. Ghita and her four children have lived in Entrevías since 2014 and until 2024 she had a contract renewed yearly. When the property changed hands, she kept paying the rent, but the harassment began. “Usually four people come: two stay in the stairwell and two knock on the door, insult me or offer me money to leave,” she explains. The latest threat is that they will set up “access controls” to force her out, meaning they will station themselves outside the home so no one can enter or leave. After several calls, this newspaper was unable to obtain a response from the desokupación company at the phone numbers provided.According to Juan Carlos González, manager of Horus Desokupa, “there is a lot of quackery in the sector and it has grown uncontrollably over the past year,” he says by phone from Toledo, where he has traveled to evict an inquiokupa (a tenant with a contract who has ceased to pay monthly rent). “Companies of only two or three people constantly emerge and do the work in any old way for next to nothing.”The methodsRegarding his controversial way of operating, González insists everything is legal. “We mediate and, depending on the type of person, we use different methods and, of course, we also offer money, but it’s clear no one likes us standing outside the door for four days,” he says. “We don’t cut services or change locks, but it is legal to set up an ‘access control’ if we have permission from the other neighbors,” he adds. For those cases, they usually subcontract security firms, which are the ones legally authorized to do that. “We’re reported frequently, but the complaints are always dismissed and we’ve never been convicted,” he clarifies about his company, one of the sector’s veterans with four years in business.“I was desperate. I’ve spent two years putting up with a guy who won’t pay me and I need that money because it’s my only income,” says the owner of a property in Tetuán who prefers not to be named but who hired one of these companies at the start of the year. “I have a mortgage I can’t pay and the justice system doesn’t work. They aren’t companies I like and it’s not the best option, but I have so much anger built up I just want to finish this as soon as possible. They do a job that neither the courts nor the police are doing. I’ve been waiting two years and if I’d known, I would have called sooner,” the landlord summarizes, having regained his house after paying €2,000 to a defaulting tenant.The Spanish Interior Ministry does not maintain a registry of these companies, which claim mediation as their corporate purpose but in many cases employ coercion and threats; several of their employees have ended up in disturbances where they operate. Sometimes due to violent methods, other times for carrying weapons, or for pretending to be police officers to intimidate people.Another common job they are hired for is to “test a property,” that is, to probe for a buyer whether the occupant inside “is a squatter who can be kicked out in a few hours or someone who will declare themselves vulnerable and therefore is likely to drag the eviction through the courts for years. In that case we advise not buying,” explains the manager of Horus Desokupa.The presence of this type of company has multiplied in areas of the capital such as Vallecas, San Blas, Vicálvaro, and Villaverde, sowing fear among those who have to deal with them. In 2023, in a dilapidated building on Azucenas Street in Tetuán, seven members of APD Security Iberia were arrested after an attempted eviction in which, according to police sources, they impersonated officers. The boss was accused of usurping public functions for showing a fake badge; the others were charged with coercion and illegal possession of weapons. When they were arrested after harassing a tenant, they were carrying extendable batons, brass knuckles, a knife, and pepper spray. Two years later, in October 2025, the same company reappeared in Puente de Vallecas: a fight between residents and APD employees resulted in 16 arrests, 10 of them workers dressed in black with the company logo, and left three people injured, including the property owner. Another case that gained notoriety was that of DesokupaCyL, which went to the wrong flat in Lugo and began insulting and harassing a man who had nothing to do with the property they had intended to evict.Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition