Spanish Locksmiths Unite Against Evictions

In the midst of what economists are beginning to call a triple dip recession, more and more people in the UK are struggling to even put together the deposit to secure a mortgage.

Spain on the other hand is reeling from the after effects of being one of the few countries in the world to have offered 100% mortgages in a small scale mirror of the sub-prime mortgage scandal that prompted the collapse of America’s housing market and the global financial crisis of 2007.

Given that Spanish unemployment currently stands at around 26%, with 50% of under-25’s unable to find work, it is unsurprising that many Spaniards are now finding it impossible to make repayments on mortgages, leading to over 50,000 evictions in the first half of 2012 alone.

100 of those evicted from their homes in 2012 committed suicide, a rising trend in countries worst affected by the financial crisis.

Resistance

However, as locksmiths from the city of Pamplona recently realised, if the locks on evicted properties are not immediately changed, homeowners are at liberty to reoccupy their houses- forcing banks to enact lengthy eviction procedures via the courts.

Locksmiths in the city have banded together to defy the country’s banks, who in the wake of the mortgage scandal are now receiving a European bailout to the tune of 40 billion euros.

Although they claim to be losing up to 10% of their business, Pamplona’s locksmiths are fed up with seeing the most vulnerable in society paying for the errors of the banks and the wider financial system. Full story here.

In the UK

With government growth predictions way off the mark, and the ensuing financial crisis looking bleaker as time goes on, it is fair to say that the full effects of austerity are still yet to be felt.

With that in mind, I wonder whether a similar moral stance will be taken by British locksmiths, bailiffs, and the assorted contractors who assist in evictions of both squatters and those who have defaulted on mortgage payments?

More to the point, how long before the latter category are forced to resort to squatting simply to keep a roof over their heads?

MF