Squatter in Spain Loses Home to Squatter While on Caribbean Holiday

Raquel Garrido Returns from Caribbean Holiday to Find Squatter in Home – Social Media Says It’s Karma

A housing case in Spain has sparked heated debate after a woman who had squatted for nearly a decade in a property without legal rights returned from a Caribbean holiday to find another squatter had taken her place. The story has been widely debated online. Many call it a twist of poetic justice, while others see it as another example of Spain’s inept government creating lawlessness.

Raquel Garrido had been in the property for almost ten years. She admitted that she was not the legal owner, and did she have a rental contract, yet she considered the house her home. Over the years, she said she had invested time and money into repairs and improvements, and had turned the once-neglected building into a place that she felt belonged to her. The property, however, is legally owned by a property development company.

While she was enjoying a trip to the Dominican Republic, another woman seized the chance to move in. When Garrido returned, she found the lock changed and her belongings inaccessible.

No honour amongst squatters.

What made the situation personal is that the new occupant was allegedly connected to Garrido through former friends. According to Garrido, her former friends shared details about her absence, and even gave the address to the new squatter. She claims this act was a betrayal, and explained that after the friendships ended, limits were crossed and private information was given away.

The case was featured on the television programme En boca de todos, where Garrido expressed her frustration and sense of injustice. She explained how she had made the property habitable and felt that she had earned a right to stay there through her efforts. Her appearance, however, was met with a mixed reaction. Many viewers were unsympathetic, and pointed out that she herself had entered the property without permission.

The Guardia Civil documented the situation but could not remove the new squatter without a formal complaint from the legal owner. In Spanish law, police generally need either the owner’s request or a court order to carry out an eviction. Since Garrido has no ownership rights, the authorities could not act on her behalf.

Online reactions reveal a split in public opinion. Some found the incident amusing, and describe it as karma and joke that she had experienced what she herself had done years before. Others have criticised the idea of anyone taking a holiday abroad while claiming they could not afford rent. At the same time, many have highlighted the difficulty in protecting empty properties, and the tension the government has created by ‘rewarding criminality’.
A central and repeating question is: Why should the burden of housing those in need fall on legal private property owners instead of the government, which has huge amounts of resources to provide accommodation – resources that are funded by the taxes of those same property owners?

Spain’s squatting laws are a subject of constant controversy. Some defend them as a safeguard for vulnerable people (perhaps their homes have not been squatted in yet), while others suggest that Spain’s squatter laws are too easily exploited, and give examples of occupied properties in the hands of Mafia style syndicates (who rent these homes out), and suggest that many squatted homes are occupied by non-Spaniards immigrants.

Garrido has tried to resolve the situation directly with the new occupant and by involving neighbours, but so far neither approach has worked. She remains locked out of the home she once considered hers. Whether the developer will move forward with a formal eviction or leave the matter to unfold between the two women is still unknown.

For now, the case stands as both a personal dispute and a public talking point. To some, it is a moment of poetic justice, in which one squatter learned the consequences of her own actions. To others, it is a larger sign of government failure and dereliction of duty.