LIVING

Guillem Fernández works at Prohabitatge, a non-profit Catalan organisation helping people find housing and deal with related legal issues. “The theory and practice of renting a flat are very different,” Fernández told Metropolitan. So before entering the quagmire of reality, it’s worth getting familiar with some of the difficulties others have faced, to be prepared if and when they come along.

One person who knows all too well how hard the ‘difficulties’ can be, if they do come along, is Craig Lester, an Englishman, who asked that his real name not be used. In October 2005, he was looking for somewhere new to live. “When you’re a bit desperate you become more vulnerable,” he said. “I was very unhappy in my old flat, had been looking for a while and there was the ‘challenging’ situation of price.”

So when a stranger named Jorge, approached Lester while he was checking a locutori noticeboard with rental accommodation, and told him he knew about a flat in his building available for €550 a month, Lester was definitely interested. However, in a matter of days, he ended up paying out just over €3,000 for a flat that was not for rent.

It turned out that Jorge had lived in the building a year previously and kept the keys when he left. He showed Lester the flat when the real tenants were out, and pretended to talk to the ‘landlord’ by phone in front of him. Lester commented that, on reflection, Jorge’s character was a clue. “He was cocky. He gave the impression that he was very successful and that my money was chicken feed.”

Lester also warned prospective renters to be wary when things are moving along quickly and the contact keeps trying to get more money. In the end, despite Lester stopping a police van to ask for help when on his way to a meeting with Jorge (the police asked Jorge for ID and took him to a local police station when he could not produce any), and later making a formal denuncia, Jorge disappeared without returning any of the money.

Lester’s is an extreme case, and most people follow a smoother path to finding a flat. When a contract has been signed, keys received, and the move initiated, not much should go wrong. Well, how about three weeks trying to get the gas connected? David Robinson found himself without hot water or cooking facilities despite moving into a flat that had just been renovated. “The rental agency contacted Gas Natural to arrange the connection at the flat,” explained Robinson. “The company came out, took one look at the installation and said that it wasn’t legal.”

After much to-ing and fro-ing between the agency, the lampista (plumber) who did the original installation and Gas Natural, including five visits by the latter until they were satisfied with the lampista’s work, gas was finally switched on. Robinson found leaning on the rental agents worked. He demanded they have someone wait in the flat for the gas man instead of himself, even though they denied it was their problem. And he got some compensation.

“When I asked for money back, they took it as a joke, but I put my foot down and threatened to move out.” Understandably, Robinson advises potential renters to look for a place where everything is connected
Even once settled in a flat, sudden changes to a contract are possible. Legally, once a contract expires, the landlord can raise the rent much more than the standard inflation rate that most tenants experience each year. However, Jeff Peterson, from the US, who rents a flat in Gràcia with his partner, was given a rent increase without warning. “We had a verbal contract for five years, a sublet. But then the old, written contract expired and the administrator called out of the blue.”

They were told to get out immediately, or pay a new rent, double that which they had been paying. Through the Organització de Consumidors i Usuaris de Catalunya (OCUC), they discovered that legally the verbal contract still stood and they could carry on paying the same rent for two years. “We had a case and could have stood our ground” said Peterson, but in the end they decided it was better to get a five-year lease at a ‘medium’ rate. However, getting the new contract proved expensive.

“When the deal had been negotiated with the administrator, we had to pay a finder’s fee of one month, three month’s back rent owed by the previous tenant, commission of one month for doing the paperwork, one month deposit and €140 to draw up the contract including photocopying.”

The high fees charged by agencies are due to a “lack of specification in the law,” according to Guillem Fernández. The Law on Urban Renting (LAU) states that a one-month deposit and the first month of rent should be paid, he said, but added, “There is nothing in the law about charging more than this and so it isn’t illegal…It’s an abuse, but it’s not illegal.”

Such ‘abuses’ mean that people looking for a flat here need to be on their toes. For while the experiences of the three people interviewed here are not faced by everyone who is flat-seeking in Barcelona, they are unforunately by no means unique.