Terrace at one of the apartments. | Alejandro Sepúlveda

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The people living in tourist apartments in Cala d'Or maintain that they are not squatters. They say they paid the previous owner, that they worked in the adjoining hotel for him and that when he died, "we didn't know who to turn to".

According to them, Jordi Chalé, who inherited the apartments in 2019, told them to leave. "But we have been here for 16 years. There were more people." Apartments were rented to workers. "We had a rental contract with the previous owner. Then came threats, even sending in evictors who intimidated us and scared the children, boarding up properties of those who left. They cut off our electricity and water, we had to sort it out with the town hall."

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Of pending legal proceedings, one says: "We're not squatters, we had our contract until the previous owner died. They say we're squatters, when we've been here sixteen years. We're not refusing to pay rent. He (Jordi) doesn't want that. He has intimidated us and we're afraid to leave. We are hospitality workers and he says he won't rent to us because we won't pay him, when he sublet to other workers with whom we had problems, unlike with the other neighbours, who know us and with whom we get along well.

"Until a judge orders us to, we are not going to leave here, because we, in addition, looked after the previous owner before he died. Security cameras are pointed at the terrace, where our children, who are minors, play. That is not right."

Jordi Chalé vehemently denies all these accusations. The cameras are there for security to prevent reoccupations. He has never sublet the squatted apartments. He is stuck while waiting for the courts to arrive at a solution so he is able to renovate and reopen the business, "or at least seek the help of investors or a partner to be able to start working".