Police arrive before the scheduled time

The eviction of a physicist and researcher at the University of Valencia was carried out on Thursday, 22 October, at a flat in Burjassot, a town on the edge of Valencia. The eviction was scheduled for 9:30, but the National Police reached the building around 6:00, roughly three hours earlier, and deployed eight vans. The tenant said he was woken by noise in the street and saw riot police vehicles blocking the road. According to the reports, he then began to suffer anxiety symptoms, and he said he had not expected the operation so early in the morning.

Tenant leaves after identifying himself

Officers asked the tenant for identification, and he gave his ID card and a phone number before leaving the flat. Esteban Arellano, spokesman for the Sindicat d'Habitatge de València, said the man left the home out of necessity after an anxiety attack and was treated at a health centre. The union had called a press conference for 8:30 to explain the case, but the tenant told the union he did not want to expose anyone to a confrontation, so no protest was organised. Arellano said a gathering would have faced a heavy police response, and he described the case as part of a wider problem.

“This case is a clear example of the reality of the housing crisis that female workers suffer.”

Arellano added that most of the population is closer to facing a situation like this than to being able to buy a home.

Two appeals and an earlier halt

The eviction had been halted on 30 September, when the court gave the tenant 10 working days to present allegations, according to La Vanguardia. The union says those 10 working days were not accepted, and it now has two appeals in progress: a complaint seeking to bring the matter before the Tribunal Supremo and a reposición appeal. Arellano said the tenant holds two court rulings in his favour that recognise his purchase right and confirm that his rental contract remains in force. Eldiario reports that the first postponement followed pressure from neighbours and support from colleagues at the Instituto de Física Corpuscular, after the Sindicat mobilised people against the eviction.

Rent, debt and ownership of the flat

LaSexta reports that the tenant had lived in the flat for 17 years and paid rent every month. According to the same outlet, his rent had been 350 euros since the 2008 financial crisis, but the property later passed to an investment fund that raised the rent to a level he could not afford. He also faces a claim of 36,000 euros that he attributes to rent adjustments. LaSexta further reports that the flat was sold to a private individual in 2025, which ignored his preferential purchase right. Eldiario reports that he had rented the flat since 2009 under a contract that included a purchase right, and that the eviction followed a lawsuit brought by the fund that owns the property.