• Santiago Thomás de Carranza, clarifies in Idealista News the differences between breaking and entering, home invasion and squatting and their legal treatment.

Santiago Thomás de Carranza, managing partner of the Firm that legally manages more than 14,000 properties throughout Spain, analyzes in Idealista News the main types of illegal occupation included in the legal system: breaking and entering, home invasion and “squatting”, as well as the procedural channels that can be activated in each case to recover the property.

According to Thomás de Carranza, the increase in occupancy is due to a combination of factors, including the lack of a sustained social housing policy and “tolerance on the part of the legislator”. In his opinion, the current regulations do not adequately protect private owners -who are not major landlords- and end up forcing them to take on processes “that can take months or even years to recover their homes”. A dynamic that, he warns, “discourages residential rental and contributes to further stressing prices”.

In this context, the lawyer distinguishes three legal figures with differentiated treatment. On the one hand, breaking and entering, which affects the habitual residence and is prosecuted as a crime, requiring the immediate intervention of the security forces. On the other hand, the usurpation of a dwelling, which refers to real estate that does not constitute a domicile and which opens the way to civil proceedings, which are usually longer. And finally, the so-called “inquiokupación”, when the occupant agrees to a lease, but fails to comply with its obligations. In this last case, the main channel is eviction for breach of contract, “although in certain cases a crime of fraud may be involved”, he clarifies, “but what matters to the owner is to be able to recover his home as soon as possible”.

Furthermore, Thomás de Carranza warns that, although the recent procedural reform and the so-called “anti-squatting law” promised recovery periods of 15 days in cases of peaceful usurpation, the reality is that ordinary procedures continue to prevail and the times are extended, shifting the burden to the owner and generating a problem of legal certainty.

The full version of the interview is available at: https: //www.idealista.com/news/inmobiliario/vivienda/2025/11/05/869601-las-tres-caras-de-la-okupacion-en-espana-como-actuar-en-cada-caso-segun-un-abogado.