Woman in Palma, Mallorca selling a studio said to have squatters

Noemí Rotger with her sign. | Gemma Marchena

Andrew EdePalma15/01/2025 08:08
TW
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At the Three Kings parade in Palma, a woman came to public attention for carrying a sign advertising a studio flat for sale. Noemí Rotger explained that the flat had squatters but that she needed to sell it as she was planning to move to China, which is where her husband and children live. She was critical of legal insecurity arising from squatting law in Spain. According to her, the squatters had gone to court to have themselves declared 'vulnerable'. The squatters are a mother and three children.

Noemí Rotger has now been denounced to the National Police by the mother. The reason is harassment, what she describes as mobbing. The mother says that on September 1, 2022, she signed a rental contract for the property on C. Rubí, where she is registered with her three daughters, adding that a Palma court is investigating a complaint against her for usurpation of another person's property.

The publicity that the sign attracted, the mother explains, led to a great deal of media attention. The day after, January 6, the national press and television media arrived outside the property. It was the same on January 7. "They asked me questions, stating that the flat had squatters."

"The very idea that my daughters and I could see ourselves on television being described as squatters caused the stress to turn into anxiety attacks for me and my daughters." She says that someone called Joan contacted her to find out if she would leave the property in exchange for financial compensation. "I am now afraid to go out on the street."

From what Noemí Rotger claims, it would appear that the mother sought the protection of vulnerability, which is a provision of the law as it relates to squatting. It is an aspect of the law that has drawn much criticism.