Find out the diference between: usurpation, ocupation and unlawful intrusion at home?

Occupation, usurpation and unlawful intrusion at home are usual topics in Spain. We have already talked about what is vandalism and what it isn't, but we have not gone further on other possible crimes and problems faced by property owners lately.

Although many people use these three terms as synonims, they do not mean the same thing. Therefore, the three situations demmand different answers, nor do they imply the same penalties.

What do the legal concepts of occupation, unlawful intrusion at home, and usurpation mean?

The first thing that must be clear is what each of these concepts that we hear in the news means, but we are not always clear.

- Usurpation: can be applied to more things than just housing. For instance, your identity can be stolen. But the one that concerns us is the housing usurpation. This occurs when a house is empty, not inhabited by anyone, and someone stays inside making it their residence without the  owners consent.

- Unlawful intrusions, on the contrary, is the one that occurs when that house does have inhabitants when someone tries to stay inside.
In these two legal concepts, the most important is the concept of entering into a home with its owners inside. If someone "dwells" or lives in the interior, the crime is breaking and entering. Therefore, the penalties is more severe.
When no one lives inside a house, the crime is one of usurpation the punishment for this crime is less severe.

How is each crime punished?

It is not the same problem that the people whose house is usurped live in it or when they live a unlawful intrusion. The penalties are not the same in both cases. 

A crime of entering in a not habited home involves a fine. However, the crime of breaking and entering already carries a prison sentence. This difference is due to the fact that having "squatters" in an empty house does not produce the same setbacks as in an inhabited house.  The crime therefore is not the same either.

It is important to be aware of these differences between squatting and breaking and entering when it comes to what we can do legally if every crime occurs.

So, what are we talking about when we talk about 'occupation' if the Spanish law doesn't use this concept?

Actually what we usually talk about in the news that we have seen lately is usurpation. The houses that usually appear in the news as occupied are in fact usurped houses, since we usually see second homes or uninhabited houses that have not been sold or are seized.

The usurpation of uninhabited, foreclosed or multi-occupied homes, owned by the banks, often represent in much slower evictions, both through the legal processes themselves, and sometimes through the passivity of the owners, who often find out from the property managers that their home is occupied. On December 9th, this neglect led to the death of human beings in Badalona. As a result of this sad situation, we would like to make an appeal to all owners: a usurpation must and can be denounced because it is a crime. We ask you to do so as soon as the Property Manager gives you notice of it. If you are a company that has acquired a plot of land and, unfortunately, you have to leave it and the criminal offence occurs, report it... it is your responsibility.

In these cases, sometimes the neighbors of the community are the ones who suffer the most from the consequences of the crime, especially if the occupants are conflicting or have uncivic behavior.

The concept of Occupation comes to us from the "squatter" movement that in Spain reached its peak in the late 60s and early 70s. This movement advocates the use of temporarily or permanently uninhabited houses and premises to "fight against economic and social problems". The quotation marks indicate that this is the position of the squatters, not ours.

It is important to know how to differentiate them. In this way you will know what you are exposed to, and what kind of penalties the criminals may suffer. We will deal with this in part two.