They are the nightmare of all landlords: the tenants that have turned the omission of the monthly rent payment into a way of life. They should simply be considered swindlers as they rent flats without any intention to pay and between one eviction and another end up living for free for periods of up to one and a half years.

Mari Carmen, a flat owner in Puerto Banús, Marbella, acquaints us with her story. She owns a flat in this prestigious area and has long paid off the mortgage. She therefore decided to rent our her flat in May to a very elegant English gentleman “which was dressed so smartly, he looked like a marquis”. Upon moving in he demanded some improvements and a reduction of the rent as the air conditioning was not functioning correctly. He then paid one months rent plus a one month deposit. From then on, not one more Euro was paid. She tells us of how she went to see him to tell him that if he did not pay, he would have to leave, and the “elegant” gentleman responded very directly “I am not moving until the courts force me out of here”. The law in Spain ended up allowing him one year of free housing until they carried out the forced eviction.

The debtors mostly come up with the same type of excuses such as bank errors or personal and health issues. Out of pity, most landlords wait for an average of 8 months and 5 days to take the debtors to court.
The average debt in Spain is of 3999 Euros and end up being impossible to collect. Once the complaints have been deposited it takes an average of 6 months and 14 days for the court sentence to fall an another 3 months and 16 days on average for the forced eviction. In total, 18 months. An this is just an average!

Many of these cases are delayed another 12 months due to saturated courts or administrative hold-ups.
So how can we avoid becoming a victim of these crooks? Research has shown that most of them are men (50,5%) and of Spanish nationality (74,2%), 25,8% of them are foreigners and 35,7% are women. So as we can see, identifying them is just a matter of luck!

It seems that word has got around that if you don’t pay your rent in Spain, nothing will happen to you!

The “Unidad Contra las Redes de Inmigración y Falsedades (UCRIF)” - the unit against illegal immigration traps and falsehood - were invigilating Opium Mar for some time and concluded that some workers were carrying out building and waiting work illegally. The moment the search was carried out there were 23 employees present, some has papers but no contracts.

The police, which acted together with the “Inspección de Trabajo” (workers inspections), asked the employees what their work situation was; some were paid weekly and others monthly by closed envelope with 24 Euros a day, 410 Euros a week, 900 and 1.200 a month. On the other hand, if they are fired, they do not get any indemnity or any social security assistance or unemployment benefits.

Nine of the arrested were charged with infringement of the Ley de Extranjería (Law of foreigners). Days later, the police arrested the two brothers, shareholders of Opium Mar, the manager of the employees and the majority partner until 2007 when the premises were sold. All of these have been presently released with charges.

Ramón, one of the owners of the club, insisted that his workers were in the process of regularisation and were earning a “reasonable” amount of money.

Some assure us that this new use of language is a good thing as it is a creative form of expression and assure us that the young are perfectly capable of using their own slang and standard language simultaneously as it is a form of distinction in their circles. On the other hand are the detractors who think that in today’s juvenile language, not much vocabulary is used and that this will lead to the destruction of language as we know it.

Twenty philologists, university professors and scriptwriters, amongst other professionals, are going to analyze the juvenile language in San Millán de la Cogolla (La Rioja) to determine if their slang impoverishes the language.

Ana María Vigara, profesor of Spanish Language in the Universidad Complutense and author of the book “Cultura y estilo de los niños bien: radiografía del lenguaje pijo”, states that “slang has always existed and is not a sign of poverty in language”. It is their way to show they are not children anymore.

On the other hand, Francisco Reyes, musician specialized in hip-hop and professor in the Universidad Complutense thinks that the juvenile language is marked by “the lack of vocabulary and spelling mistakes in writing which reveals a lack of culture which in turn reflects their educational level”.

Many people attribute this new phenomenon to things like messenger and mobile phones where the reduction of words is most common. Although the young now have more access to information and education than ever before, they are more misinformed than ever. This phenomenon has even reached higher educational levels.

(C) Photo: taniaedu

If clients are not happy with their current operator, they do not hesitate to change to another. Most people have learnt their lesson and are not willing to stay with a current operator if they have not received what they demanded or are unsatisfied.

A report by CMT (”Comisión del Mercado de las Telecomunicaciones”) shows that Tele2 and Jazztel are the two operators that have captured the largest amount of clients from other operators.

According to this data, Tele2 seduced more than 120.000 clients subscribed to other telephone lines with other operators. Another operator that has recruited innumerable clients from their rivals is Jazztel who has seduced 60.000 clients.

Compared to the winners, Orange and Telefónica are facing the flight of their clients from different perspectives.

Orange are finding it impossible to attract new clients, they even experience months of negative balance; the dropouts are superior to the new registrations.

This occurs whilst Telefónica experience their own battle. They are the ones that lose most clients of all: 30.000 users a month, a strong blow for a company that has been the historical owner of all lines throughout Spain.

(C) Photo: dawpa2000

These measures include restrictions in Gym’s for example, where clients are only given one towel and water restrictors have been installed in the showers.

According to the Ministerio de Medio Ambiente, the reservoirs in Cataluña for example are at 19.6% of their capacity, exceeding the 20% limit that establishes the entry in an emergency situtation.

The local councils of Spain’s cities are also taking a number of measures to handle the water shortages caused by the drought. Among other things, it is forbidden for private individuals to use tap water for filling swimming pools, watering gardens, or washing down terraces and garages.

(C) Photo: darkpatator

Her waters broke and there was no time to leave for the hospital, so she gave birth at home with the help of her six year old son. Little José said it all seemed really easy.

José describes seeing his mother coming out of the bathroom holding her stomach, and being able to see the head of his baby sister.

He says he told his mother María, to take her hands away and let the baby be born. María herself proudly relates how she told José to put his hands underneath her, and smoothly draw out his little sister.

The ambulance arrived after the birth to find a healthy baby girl who the family have decided to call Lucía.

Madrid has 1.060.606 foreigners registered with a “permiso de residencia” in January this year; 16,62% of the region’s total population, with an average age of 30 and mostly coming from Latin America (47%) and Europe (35%).

This study, carried out by the “Consejería de Inmigración y Cooperación” also concludes that most foreigners choose to live in the capital (548.648) and Alcalá de Henares (41.705).

Javier Fernández-Lasquetty, councillor of “Inmigración y Cooperación”, furthermore informs that between January last year and January this year 59.548 new immigrants were given papers.

The highest influx of foreigners has come from Rumania, with 195.676 people. These are followed by the Ecuadorians (145.352), Moroccans (85.626), Colombians (72.940), Bolivians (60.797), Peruvians (57.622), and Chinese (35.412), Bulgarian (31.720), Dominican (31.616) and Polish (27.383).

The study furthermore reveals that amongst the Latin American immigrants prevail the women and amongst the Asian and African, the men.

(C) Copyright Photo: punxutawneyphil

The cost of the macro-botellón held in Granada this weekend lies at approximately at 34,000 €.

The biggest part of that, according to Eduardo Moral, the local councilor for public safety, will go to the overtime the local police officers did to control the crowd.

The people attending the botellón got assigned a special site called the “botellódromo”, and as always, there are always a few smart ones that insist on breaking the law; 23 people got fined for drinking outside these premises.

50 people from the Inagra cleaning company were needed for the cleanup operation for the 45 tons of rubbish created.
The event was mobilized over the Internet, and the courts turned down a complaint placed by the Partido Popular Mayor of the city, José Torres Hurtado, ruling that there was no legal reason to stop it going ahead.

(C) Copyright Photo: diluvi

The people of Spain feel fooled as Zapatero has insisted since months that Spain is not encountering a crisis and they now see that this is not the case. The residential sector is encountering it’s worst moment in history.

This once prosperous sector will demand new and more intense tax deductions in the acquisition of new housing. The objective is to give more breathing space to this crucial sector which is facing a most grave situation. The fear of impossibility of payment has been extended throughout the country and mistrust towards this sector has grown.

Businesses and trade unions are considering demanding an urgent crash plan to keep the activity stable in a business that employs more than 15% of the active labour population.

The “Asociación de Promotores y Constructores de España (Apce)” (Spain’s Real Estate and Construction Association) reminds us that “the prosperity of the general economy and consumption function in parallel with housing”.

Tourists from the UK are still in the leading position, with 1,6 million visitors until February and Germany follows with 1,3 million. On the other hand the French have reduced their numbers by 767.022 tourists, whereas the northern countries have increased their visits by 20,9%.

The Canary Islands, Spain’s main tourist destination in Winter, received 1,7 million visitors in the first months of the year, with an increase of 6,8% compared to last year. Catalonia received 1,4 million (3,8% more) and Andalucía, 812.363 tourists, with an increase of 6,6%. Madrid received 672.000 tourists, 18,3% more than last year.

Furthermore, more and more tourists prefer travelling by airplane and not by car. This is due to the high number of low cost airlines making Spain one of their main destinations. The non-low cost airlines have seen their passengers decreasing as 60% of tourists fly with low cost airlines such as Ryanair (27,2%), Easyjet (18%) and Air Berlin (14%). Vueling represents 7,8% of the market whereas Clickair has 6,5%.

(C) Copyright Photo: ostromentsky