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Date Published: 06/06/2023

UK homeowner beaten and bloodied by Malaga squatters

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The Briton was attacked with a glass bottle when he discovered illegal okupas in his Andalucia holiday home

UK homeowner beaten and bloodied by Malaga squatters

A British man had to be hospitalised in the Costa del Sol municipality of Manilva after being viciously beaten by squatters who had illegally holed up in his Malaga property.

52-year-old Michael quickly booked a flight to Spain when neighbours called the UK to tell him people had moved into his holiday home. According to local reports, the Brit was smashed over the head multiple times with glass bottles when he asked the squatters, known as okupas, to vacate his apartment.

When the Guardia Civil arrived at the scene, they allegedly told Michael “to file a complaint” with the Local Police once he was released from hospital.

Squatting is a growing issue in Spain, with homeowners and even officers complaining for years that the law unfairly bends in favour of the illegal tenants. A recent modification of the Housing Law appears to have made matters worse, since okupas deemed ‘vulnerable’ or those whose habitual residence is the occupied property are even more difficult to evict.

Michael touched down in Malaga early on Tuesday May 30 and wasted no time in making the 100-kilometre journey to his Manilva home. After neighbours filled him in on what had been happening, he went to confront the squatters, who violently attacked him.

One neighbour described the scene when Michael fled from the apartment complex, bleeding profusely: “Several people beat him up. They attacked him with a bottle and cut him with the glass. On his back, for example, he had a ten-centimetre wound. Much more, and they would have killed him.”

The injured homeowner was taken to the Costa del Sol hospital in Marbella, having suffered two fractures to a finger, numerous cuts and slashes all over his body and extensive wounds on the left side of his head.

In a complaint filed a couple of days later, Michael explained that, when he realised the locks to his apartment had been changed, he rang the doorbell several times but no one answered. He then decided to climb through an open window, assuming that nobody was home.

To Michael’s surprise, three men, who he believes to be Moroccan, were in the room and immediately launched an attack. The victim added that his only defended himself by pushing his assailants away and that at no time did he use an object or weapon.

Incredibly, the police advised Michael to book into a hotel rather than returning to his property, since the squatters could actually file a complaint against him for entering the apartment being invited.

Sources from the community have indicated that this is the third address that has been squatted recently, and they expressed their disbelief that these illegal occupants have managed to obtain remote controls for the garage doors, and some have even installed alarms.

Residents now believe the area is being targeted by an organised criminal group.

On the road to recovery, the wronged homeowner has since returned to the UK and enlisted the help of a lawyer, but holds little hope that the illegal tenants will be turfed out by the authorities.

“I know what is going to happen, they are not going to do anything,” Michael said. “I don’t know if I’m going to return to Manilva.”

Now read: How to get squatters out under the new Spanish housing law

Image: Manilva Guardia Civil via Google

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