Questioning the ‘freedom of contract’: contract disobedience and the tenant struggle in Barcelona

Figures & data

Figure 1. Pictures taken from carlos’s balcony inside the property being repossessed show a riot police intervention in front of an eviction blockade. Source: Ivan geisen (BTU).

Figure 2. Banners hanging on the balconies of the Azora building block in Badalona. Source: author.

Figure 3. Azora tenants’ conflict chronology of key events. Source: author.

Figure 4. Tenants staging the protest in Azzam offices, February 3, 2020. Source: author.

Table 1. The legal countermovement: chronology and summary of principal regulations transforming residential rent contractual conditions.¹³

A	October 2018	The Constitutional Court lifts the ban on the Catalan 24/2015 Anti-Eviction Law.	Llei 24/2015 del 29 de juliol, de mesures urgents per a afrontar l’emergència en l’àmbit de l’habitatge i la pobresa energètica	Resulting from a popular legislative initiative led by different right-to-housing organisations (PAH, APE), this law, popularly known as the Anti-Eviction Law, forces large landlords (up to 15) to offer social rents (well below market average rents) to vulnerable tenants who are in rental payment arrears or defaults. Beyond rent regulations, the law also includes protective schemes for over-indebted mortgage holders or legal mechanisms to force the social use of vacant housing and bans the interruption of energy supplies of vulnerable people unable to pay the bills.
B	March 2019	Spanish Decree Modifying Urban Urban Rental Law (LAU).	Real Decreto-ley 7/2019, de 1 de marzo, de medidas urgentes en materia de vivienda y alquiler.	Extension of minimum duration rental contracts from three to five/seven years. Prohibition of rent increases within the contract years, extension of the minimum notification time before contract termination, and fixing of a maximum deposit claimable in order to access a rental contract.
C	December 2019	Catalan Decree Modifying the 24/2015 Anti-Eviction Law.	Decret Llei 17/2019, de 23 de desembre, de mesures urgents per millorar l’accés a l’habitatge.	Contract terminations are being included as situations in which vulnerable tenants can claim a social rent and not just default payment or rent arrear situations.
D	March 2020	Spanish Royal Decree of urgent economic and social measures in the face of Covid-19.	Real Decreto-ley 11/2020, de 31 de marzo, por el que se adoptan medidas urgentes complementarias en el ámbito social y económico para hacer frente al Covid-19.	Decree issued by the Spanish Government in order to mitigate the impacts of the social crisis derived from Covid-19. The main rental housing-related measures were rent moratoriums (and, if the landlord was a large landlord, owning 10 or more housing units, tenants could apply for non-mandatory 50% rent release) and the six-months extension of rental agreements that were about to expire.
E	September 2020	Catalan 11/2020 Law, popularly known as Rent Control Law.	Llei 11/2020, del 18 de setembre, de mesures urgents en matèria de contenció de rendes en els contractes d’arrendament	Law 11/2020 prohibits rent increases (with some exceptions) and forces rent decreases for rentals that are above the average rental prices marked by the official indicator.
F	November 2020	Catalan Decree which modifies the 24/2015 Social Rent Law, extending the protection of vulnerable tenants against eviction in the context of pandemics.	Decret Llei 37/2020, de 3 de novembre, de reforç de la protecció del dret a l’habitatge davant els efectes de la pandèmia de la Covid-19.	Urgent decree issued to increase the protection of vulnerable tenants against evictions by large landlords in the context of the pandemic.
G	December 2020	Spanish Decree of urgent measures to face situations of vulnerability in relation to housing (and transportation), popularly known as the Anti-Eviction Decree.	Real Decreto-ley 37/2020, de 22 de diciembre, de medidas urgentes para hacer frente a las situaciones de vulnerabilidad social y económica en el ámbito de la vivienda y en materia de transportes.	Urgent decree issued to increase the protection of vulnerable tenants against evictions by large landlords in the context of the pandemic.
H	December 2020	Catalan Decree modifying the Rent Control Law and urgently stimulating the building of publicly protected rental units.	Decret Llei 50/2020, de 9 de desembre, de mesures urgents per estimular la promoció d’habitatge amb protecció oficial i de noves modalitats d’allotjament en règim de lloguer.	Decree that, among other aspects, complements the Rent Control Law (11/2020), making explicit that rents cannot be indirectly increased via the inclusion of extra expenses (cleaning service, garbage service, property taxes, etc.).
1	February 2021	The 17/19 Decree, which complements the Social Rent Law 24/2015, is declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court. Among other aspects, large landlords do not have the obligation to offer new social rent contracts to tenants when the rental contract expires.
I	January 2022	Law 1/2022, or the new Anti-Eviction Law.	Llei 1/2022, del 3 de març, de modificació de la Llei 18/2007, la Llei 24/2015 i la Llei 4/2016 per a afrontar l’emergència en l’àmbit de l’habitatge	This new Anti-Eviction Law finally consolidates the modifications made by the 17/2019 Decree. Large landlords are obliged to offer a social rent to vulnerable tenants, not only in case of default payment but also after the contract expires.
2	March 2022	The 11/2020 Law or Rent Control Law is declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court.
	May 2023	Passing of the new Spanish Housing Law, which includes a system of rent controls, similar to the 11/2020 Law, prohibiting rent increases (with the exceptions of structural refurbishment) and forcing rent decreases in the case of large landlords (lowered to five or more housing units).

Source: elaboration from legal texts published in the boletín oficial del estado.