87-year-old Maricarmen and her 500€ old rent apartment

€500 a month in Retiro: Maricarmen's fourth eviction attempt

How does one end up paying 500 euros a month for an apartment in Madrid's Retiro neighborhood? According to the version circulating in the debate, with a contract signed before the law changed the rental market. Maricarmen, 87 years old and in a wheelchair, faced her fourth eviction attempt this Wednesday on Alcalde Sainz de Baranda street. At 7:30 AM, officers began clearing the street, removing protesters one by one; at 9:20 AM, the judicial commission arrived. The scene turned into a television set.

A 1956 contract and three subrogations

According to a participant in the debate, the origin is an old rent lease signed by her father in 1956, with mandatory renewal and strong protection, prior to the Boyer Decree of 1985. Upon the father's death in the sixties, the mother would have been subrogated; upon her death in 2005, Maricarmen. The rent would be updated only with the CPI and IBI, around 500 euros per month. Contracts prior to May 9, 1985, are governed by the 1964 LAU (Urban Leases Law).

Sleepless night and the tug-of-war over who the police obey

About 100 protesters spent the night in front of the building, and another 300 joined at dawn, including neighbors and members of the Tenants' Union. The cordon included riot police and about fifteen police vehicles. Regarding who gave the order, conflicting versions circulate: one side places the operation under the Government Delegation, and another attributes it to the regional and municipal framework. Neither holds up without documentation. Some contrast this rent with other institutional rentals well below market price, and others recall that the Penal Code punishes removing essential products from the market.

No one has yet explained how many more attempts are possible. The law that made that 1956 contract possible has gone four decades without being replicated. Perhaps we learned something.