It’s unbelievable how people are willing to condemn themselves to a miserable life just to hold on to a small privilege.

Someone I know in Spain was offered a great apartment.

It was “illegally occupied”. So great price… as in Spain, remove someone that does not pay the rent or has entered illegally into your property is a task of many, many, many years, and many thousands of euros… and it’s not clear that you can get them out – yes… this is why I don’t rent long term in Spain, and will never do… but that’s for another moment.

Now, you understand why the price was so low...

Well… my friend thought that it was worth visiting and talking to the occupants to see if we could reach an agreement that would benefit everyone.

So, he went there, knocked on the door, and a very polite man in his 50s opened it and explained the situation.

Turns out, he wasn’t a squatter.
He was a tenant with an old rent-controlled lease.

Tenants with old rent contracts in Spain are a protected species within the Iberian real estate ecosystem—one that’s on the verge of extinction.

His mother, who is still alive, signed a lease nearly 60 years ago. That had been their family home ever since.

He couldn’t tell exactly how the property ended up in the hands of an investment fund.
I assume the original owner, realizing that the apartment would ruin him financially, took out a mortgage, ran off to the Caribbean with the money, and left the bank to deal with the mess.
Then, the bank sold the debt to a fund.
And ever since, different funds have been passing this hot potato around whenever they get the chance.

What he did tell my friend is that they’re trying to get them out—making their lives miserable to force them to leave, even through legal action.
But they don’t stand a chance.
They already won a lawsuit against the fund that tried to evict them, and they’ll keep winning the ones that come next.

The mother is very old and sick.
He "can't work," lives on a pension, and is considered vulnerable under Spanish law, so impossible to remove.
Plus, as long as a tenant with a rent-controlled contract keeps up with payments, the lease can’t be terminated.
It only ends when the leaseholder dies.

But wait… wait… wait…

More about Spanish law.

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It ends when the leaseholder dies… and no one takes over.

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Because if the leaseholder has a child who can prove that this is their primary residence—just like in this case—that “child” (no matter if he is more than 60 years old) has the right to take over the lease after their mother’s death.

Of course, the son’s plan is to take over.

Now, he did mention that the apartment is in terrible condition because no one has ever taken care of proper maintenance.
And they weren’t going to fix it themselves—after all, it wasn’t theirs!!

Fair enough.

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This reasoning is very common among tenants with old rent contracts… and other beings with short minds.

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They’ve lived in that apartment their whole lives and expect to stay there for several more decades. But they’d rather live in a dump than spend a single cent fixing something they use every day—something that would improve their quality of life.

They enjoy the advantage of paying a symbolic rent.

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Yet, instead of using that advantage to build wealth and move forward in life, they choose to declare themselves vulnerable, collect a pension, stop working, and live in marginal conditions—lingering in squalor for eternity, knowing no one can evict them.

I don’t get it.

To each their own.

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But instead of playing the victim, I’d rather use my hands, my mind, and my time to improve my life and the lives of those around me.

Below, the strategies I’ve used so far.

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