house fire and eviction

[charlie2000]

hello ,any advice would be an enormous help.My family and I have been living in a rented apartment for 6 months ,two days ago my Daughter arrived home worse for wear ,i am ashamed to say lit a pan of oil and then fell asleep,my son 15 yr old son was the only other person in the house he too was asleep ,luckily my son was waking for school and smelt the smoke .he then had to fight the fire himself ,the kitchen is next to the only exit in the house which was blocked by thick acrid black smoke and he had to use wet towels to put it out ,they both had a lucky escape ,there was no fire equipment in the house at all not even smoke alarms ,something i should have noticed.The damage to the property is not too bad ,despite all of all of the smoke we had it cleaned and repainted so the only damage is 1 cupboard door and a cooker hood which we will have replaced .The problem now is that the property manager wants us too leave in two days ,when i explained this was not possible ,could we have 3 weeks notice she became extremely abusive and told me she was coming today and would use her keys to enter ,she apparently has the right of entry whenever she likes ,she said the community are denouncing us as a danger to other tenants and so she can evict without notice.while i totally understand her wanting us to leave and i am willing to do so 2 days notice is not possible le and i am very worried .

[littleeak]

do you have a signed contract? If I were you I'd take it to a lawyer & explain the situation.

[charlie2000]

unfortunately we don't have a signed contract everything was a bit last minute when we rented, would anyone know what the fire regulations are regarding rented properties , thanks xxx

[Lavanda]

It sounds like a total can of worms. If you have no contract then I guess the legality of the state of the property becomes obvious. Were you paying the rent in cash? Did you get a receipt? It sounds like you should just walk away as a solicitor won't help much if the whole thing is illegal including no one paying tax or IVA on the rent, etc. and possibly no one insuring anything either. Just imagine if there had been a fatality. You might now be both grieving AND in prison. Next time get a proper contract and check the property with a fine tooth comb.

P.S. I think fire regulations in this instance are neither here nor there. I don't say that is right as I think all rented properties should have fire escapes, fire extinguishers etc. the same as any other home but it all sounds very weird to me. No contract???

[Mowser]

No contract? I wonder if your landlord is paying tax on you rent. Mention that you'll be contacting hacienda to ask their advice.

[Julie]

If I were you, I would change the barrel in the lock until you are ready to leave, its illegal for them to enter the property, even if they are the agent, and I am being told the fact that you have no contract is in your favour, so tell them if they don't allow you to find another place in a reasonable time ie; a month, that you are taking squatters rights, it is still difficult to evict people in Spain although the law has recently been changed in favour of the landlord, accidents happen, also it wouldn't do any harm to mention the legalities .
The time/cost it would take them to do something through legal channels would not be worth the myther, stick it out and see what happens,just make it clear that you are not going until you have found a place to live, but also make it clear it will be within the next month, Good luck and keep us posted.

[charlie2000]

hi ,thanks for all the advice
The Agent for the property came yesterday morning ,when I asked her to come later in the day due to work commitments she became very abusive ,she told me that because the community were going to denounce me because of the fire ,she was going to come with police and bailiffs and throw my family out as was her right.She arrived at 10 am and agreed that the damage was minimum ,a cooker hood and slight damage to a cupboard door which my Husband is replacing ,She has now decided to give us 10 days notice ,which is still very difficult ,finding the deposit and finding a property in 10 days is a nightmare