“It is a warehouse, nobody lives there, the police can go in and remove them today, can’t they?”. Usually not, and the reason is in the Spanish Criminal Code itself. Occupying a property that is not a dwelling is the offence of usurpation under Article 245 of the Criminal Code, which in its non-violent form carries a fine of three to six months. That penalty makes it a minor offence, and a minor offence does not produce the arrest or the immediate entry that people associate with a squatted home. In exchange, the owner of commercial premises has something the owner of a home usually lacks, which is that the occupants cannot invoke the inviolability of the home against him until they have turned the warehouse into their dwelling. The strategy comes out of that combination, and that is why the first thing we do at the firm is establish who is inside and since when.
Why commercial premises are not a home under the Criminal Code
The Criminal Code spreads the protection of real property across three articles, and what decides which one applies is the actual use of the space. If the property is someone’s dwelling, entering or remaining in it against the will of the resident is unlawful entry into a dwelling under Article 202, punishable with six months to two years in prison. If it is the registered office of a legal entity, a professional practice, an office or a business establishment open to the public, entering outside opening hours against the will of the owner is the offence of Article 203, which carries six months to one year in prison and a fine of six to ten months. If the property is neither a dwelling nor covered by Article 203, what remains is usurpation under Article 245, with one to two years in prison where there is violence or intimidation and a fine of three to six months where there is not.
A unit that has been closed for years or a warehouse with no activity falls under Article 245.2. A working shop, the store of an active company or a staffed office that someone occupies over a weekend may fall under Article 203, which is a less serious offence rather than a minor one and allows a firmer police and judicial response. The line is not always clear and investigating courts tend to apply 245.2 when the property is empty, but the classification is not automatic and it is argued with evidence of the activity that was going on inside.
| Conduct | Article of the Criminal Code | Penalty |
|---|---|---|
| Entering or remaining in another person’s dwelling | 202.1 | Six months to two years in prison |
| Entering commercial premises, an office or a practice outside opening hours | 203.1 | Six months to one year in prison and a fine of six to ten months |
| Remaining in commercial premises, an office or a practice outside opening hours | 203.2 | Fine of one to three months |
| Occupying a property that is not a dwelling with violence or intimidation | 245.1 | One to two years in prison |
| Occupying a property that is not a dwelling without violence | 245.2 | Fine of three to six months |
The table explains why the owner of a home obtains in days what takes the owner of a warehouse months. In unlawful entry there is a less serious, flagrant offence that justifies immediate intervention. In simple usurpation there is a minor offence with no prison sentence, in which the judge has to weigh whether a precautionary eviction is proportionate. The Public Prosecutor’s Office set this out in its Instruction 1/2020 on precautionary measures in unlawful entry and usurpation offences, which makes early eviction depend on a proportionality test that takes into account the use the owner was making of the property and the situation of those inside.
When the police can act without a court order
The police may intervene without a court order when the offence is flagrant, and in a warehouse that margin is wider than in a house. While the occupants have only just entered and have not set up their life there, there is no home to protect and officers can identify them, open a file and require them to leave the property. The protocol for the State Security Forces on illegal occupation of property, approved by Instruction 11/2020 of the Secretary of State for Security, follows that logic and distinguishes between an occupation that has just happened and one that has become settled. Once the occupants have been inside for some time, have brought in belongings and sleep there, the warehouse has become their dwelling for the purposes of Article 18.2 of the Spanish Constitution, even though the occupation is illegal, and from that moment a court order is needed to enter. That is why the speed of the first call matters more in commercial premises than in any other property, and why the advice “don’t call the police” that circulates online is, for commercial premises, bad advice.
Organic Law 1/2025 on measures to improve the efficiency of the Public Justice Service added usurpation under Article 245 to the offences that can be processed through the fast-track criminal procedure, which shortens the road when the perpetrators are identified from day one. If the police report arrives with the occupants unidentified, that advantage is lost. At this stage we act as private prosecution and prepare the complaint so that the investigating court has from the first day what it needs to assess a precautionary eviction, within our criminal law practice, and when the route is civil we direct it from civil law.
Who is inside decides the route
Three different situations reach the firm under the same sentence, “they have occupied my premises”, and each has its own channel.
Squatter with no title at all. Criminal route under Article 245 and, alongside it or instead of it, the summary possessory action of Article 250.1.4 of the Civil Procedure Act, the old action to recover possession, which works for any property and any possessor, including a company. What does not work for commercial premises is the so-called express eviction of Law 5/2018 of 11 June, which amended that same article to create an accelerated channel against unknown occupants, because the law limited it to homes and to owners who are natural persons, non-profit entities or public bodies holding social housing. The owner of a warehouse, whether a person or a company, is left with the general possessory action, which has one advantage and one trap. The advantage is that ownership is not debated, only the dispossession, and the court does not go into whether the occupants have any underlying case. The trap is Article 439.1 of the same Act, which bars the claim once a year has passed since the dispossession. Whoever lets that year go by has to bring the corresponding declaratory action, which is longer and puts ownership on the table, or the action of Article 250.1.7 if the property is registered in his name.
Precarious occupant. If you let a relative, a former partner or an acquaintance use the premises without paying rent and now they will not leave, there is no offence. That person entered with your consent and what has disappeared is your tolerance. The channel is eviction for precarious possession under Article 250.1.2 of the Civil Procedure Act, a summary procedure with no limitation period in which it is enough to prove the claimant’s title and the defendant’s lack of one. Reporting them for usurpation usually ends in the case being shelved and in lost time.
Former tenant whose lease has expired. This is the most frequent situation with commercial premises and the one handled worst. A lease of commercial premises is a lease for a use other than housing, governed by Law 29/1994 on Urban Leases, and when the term ends and the tenant stays the channel is eviction for expiry of the term under Article 250.1.1 of the Civil Procedure Act. Investigating courts refuse to treat these cases as usurpation by remaining in the property, because the entry was lawful and the dispute is contractual. The mistake that complicates everything is continuing to collect rent after expiry. Article 1566 of the Civil Code provides for tacit renewal if the tenant stays on for fifteen days enjoying the property with the landlord’s acquiescence, and a payment accepted without reservation can be read as that acquiescence and give rise to a new contract. If the tenant keeps paying, the money must be documented as compensation for occupation and never as rent, and that is done in writing and before the first euro is touched.
What to do in the first hours
Do not go in, even if the door is open and you see no one. If someone sleeps inside, your entry can be classified as unlawful entry into a dwelling under Article 202 against you and, if there is a scuffle, as coercion under Article 172 of the Criminal Code. Do not change the lock, do not cut the water or electricity, and do not hire a company offering to “sort it out in 24 hours”. Taking the law into one’s own hands, under Article 455 of the Criminal Code, punishes anyone who uses violence, intimidation or force on things to enforce a right he actually has instead of going to court, and the occupants usually know this better than the owner. Files in which the accused ends up being the owner exist, and they almost always start this way.
Call the police or the Guardia Civil the moment you detect the entry and ask that the report record the date, the time and the state of the entrances. If there are cameras on the industrial estate, in the street or in neighbouring units, ask that the footage be preserved that same day, because most of it is overwritten within weeks. Gather the deed or the Land Registry extract, the latest property tax receipt, the utility contracts, the lease if there was one and the notice ending it, and any photographs you have of the interior before the occupation. Make an inventory of the stock, machinery and furniture that was inside using whatever you have to hand, invoices, delivery notes, photographs, the insurance policy. That inventory is the basis of any later claim and nobody will reconstruct it for you.
Do not pay them to leave, do not sign any document they put in front of you and do not accept a contract that appears out of nowhere. It is common for occupants to produce a lease signed with a supposed landlord or a payment receipt. It may be forged, or they may themselves be victims of someone who rented out what was not theirs, in the same way fake holiday lets work as described in this post, and in both cases that document goes into the complaint and is not argued over at the warehouse door.
Stock, machinery and utilities
What was inside the premises has its own criminal treatment, separate from the occupation. If stock is missing, it is theft under Article 234 of the Criminal Code, or burglary under Article 237 and following if they forced locks or doors to reach it. If they have wrecked fittings, machines or partitions, it is criminal damage under Article 263, which above 400 euros stops being a minor offence. All of it is reported together with the occupation and quantified with the inventory from the previous section, because without a figure there is no order to pay compensation.
Utilities deserve a call on the first day. If electricity and water are contracted in your name, notify the occupation to the distributor and the supplier in writing and ask to cancel the contract or, at least, to have it on record that consumption from that date is not yours. If the occupants hook up to the grid, they commit the offence of electricity fraud under Article 255 of the Criminal Code, and the company needs to know that the account holder is not the one consuming. Cutting the supply yourself with people inside is a different matter, and I deal with it in the final questions.
Time limits and the competent court
Usurpation is a continuing offence, so the limitation period starts to run when the occupation ends, under Article 132.1 of the Criminal Code. The non-violent form, as a minor offence, is time-barred after one year under Article 131.1, and the violent form after five. In practice the deadline that really bites is the civil one, the year under Article 439.1 of the Civil Procedure Act for the possessory action. A claim for damages, if brought outside the criminal proceedings, is time-barred after the one year of Article 1968.2 of the Civil Code, whereas within the criminal proceedings it is joined to the prosecution.
Territorial jurisdiction is straightforward. In criminal matters the investigating court of the place where the property is located hears the case, under Article 14 of the Criminal Procedure Act. In civil matters, Article 52.1 of the Civil Procedure Act assigns proceedings on real property and evictions to the court of the place where the property lies, with no possibility of agreeing otherwise. A warehouse in Pocomaco or Sabón is litigated in A Coruña or in the relevant judicial district, even if the owning company is based in Madrid.
Claiming damages and lost income
A criminal conviction for usurpation carries civil liability under Article 109 and following of the Criminal Code, which covers restitution of the property, repair of the damage and compensation for losses, including loss of profit. In commercial premises the typical loss is the rent you have failed to collect or the business you have been unable to open, and Article 455 of the Civil Code requires a possessor in bad faith to pay over the fruits received and those the lawful possessor could have received, as well as answering for deterioration. If the claim is brought in the civil courts, its value decides the type of proceedings, the summary procedure up to 15,000 euros since Royal Decree-Law 6/2023 and the ordinary procedure above that.
The uncomfortable part is solvency. Whoever occupies a warehouse rarely has assets to answer with, and a judgment awarding a large sum for lost profit against an insolvent defendant is worth what it is worth. That is no reason to give up claiming it within the criminal proceedings, because the figure is fixed, it can be enforced if the debtor’s fortunes improve and it weighs in negotiating their departure, but it is a reason not to spend more on claiming than you can reasonably expect to recover. The picture is different when the person inside is a former tenant with a running business or an active company, because there is property to go after and the claim for rent and compensation has real prospects.
If the premises belong to a company
Criminal protection is the same, because Article 245 refers to the owner of the property without distinguishing between natural and legal persons, and so is civil possessory protection. What changes is the handling. The complaint and the claim are filed by the company through its director or an attorney with sufficient powers, with the corporate documents up to date, and a lapsed appointment or a power of attorney that does not cover litigation delays by weeks an action that in commercial premises is measured in days. You also need to check that the warehouse is still on the company’s insurance, because the multi-risk policy may cover damage caused by the occupation and usually requires a police report within a short period. Warehouses left empty when a business closes, or that pass to the next generation and sit idle while the family decides what to do with them, as happens with property handed over through an apartación, are the most common target, and keeping the policy running while the property is for sale costs less than what comes afterwards.
What we do at the firm and what you should bring
An owner who acts on his own in commercial premises is exposed to three concrete outcomes. If he goes in, changes the lock or cuts the utilities with someone inside, the file changes direction and he becomes the accused. When he picks the wrong channel, reporting a precarious occupant or a tenant with an expired lease for usurpation, the court shelves the case and the months that mattered most are lost, and if he has also accepted rent after expiry he may have renewed the very contract he wanted to end. And when he lets the year under Article 439.1 pass without filing, he loses the summary channel and enters a declaratory action with ownership up for debate.
At the firm we classify the situation using the documents from the first day, act as private prosecution before the investigating court or file the claim that matches the title of whoever is inside, and request precautionary eviction where the property and the circumstances allow it, within our civil law and criminal law practice areas. You can call +34 677 841 007 or write through the contact page. When you call, have to hand the deed or the Land Registry extract, the latest property tax receipt, the lease or the loan agreement if there was one and the date it ended, the police report number if you have already called them, and the photographs or inventory of what was inside. With that we can tell you in the first conversation which route you have and how long it may take.
Frequently asked questions
Can the police evict squatters from my commercial premises without a court order?
Yes, as long as the occupation is recent and the occupants have not turned the premises into their home. At that point there is no dwelling to protect and officers can identify them and require them to leave, on the basis of the offence under Article 245 of the Criminal Code. Once they have been inside for some time, sleep there and have belongings, the property becomes their dwelling for constitutional purposes even though the occupation is illegal, and a court order is required. That is why with commercial premises the call to the police must be made on the same day the entry is detected.
Can I cut the electricity and water to the occupied premises?
I do not advise it. If people are living inside, cutting the utilities can be classified as the offence of coercion under Article 172 of the Criminal Code, owners have been convicted for doing so, and it also hands the occupants an argument to present themselves as victims. The right course is to notify the occupation to the utility company in writing, ask to cancel the contract or to have it recorded that the consumption is not yours, and let the distributor act. If the warehouse has no one living in it and there are only illegal hook-ups, the situation is different, but take advice before touching anything.
What changes if the person inside is my former tenant whose lease has expired?
The whole channel changes. There is no offence of usurpation because they entered under a contract, so the criminal complaint is shelved. The route is eviction for expiry of the term under Article 250.1.1 of the Civil Procedure Act, to which the claim for rent or for compensation for the months they remain is joined. What you must not do is accept payments as rent after expiry, because Article 1566 of the Civil Code can turn that tolerance into a new contract by tacit renewal.
Do I need a lawyer to recover the premises or is reporting it enough?
For the initial complaint and the call to the police you do not need one, and you should do both without waiting. From there it depends on who is inside. If the police cleared the premises the same day and there is no significant damage, the matter may end in minor offence proceedings with no further expense. If the occupants have stayed, if they produce a disputed title or if it is a tenant who will not leave, the channel is a civil procedure in which a lawyer and a court agent are compulsory except in very low-value matters, and choosing the wrong route costs months. As for damages, if the occupants are insolvent and the loss is small, claiming them separately is not worth it, and we will tell you so in the first consultation.