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A woman in Basauri, Spain, says her life has been destroyed after a homeless migrant she took in through a charity association refused to leave her home, stopped paying rent, vandalized her property, and subjected her to a campaign of verbal abuse and intimidation.
Estíbaliz Kortazar, who initially rented a room to the man in a spirit of solidarity, has now been forced to abandon her own house out of fear.
“I met him through an organization that helps the homeless,” Estíbaliz told 20minutos. The man, a 48-year-old foreign national, agreed to pay €350 a month and initially honored the agreement. But after the informal contract ended at the end of last year, he refused to move out. By February, he had stopped paying rent altogether. Even before that, Estíbaliz says, the situation had become intolerable.
“He would take all my cooking pots into his room and leave nothing for me to use,” she said. “He turned up the television at midnight so I couldn’t sleep, he broke my furniture, he called me a slut, a dirty bitch, and a whore.” She says the man also tampered with the door locks, allowing himself to come and go at will while denying her full access to her own home.
Estíbaliz, a teacher who works online, said the squatter deliberately disrupted her lessons and left common areas in a state of filth. As utility bills soared, she grew convinced the man’s goal was to financially and psychologically break her.
She filed a complaint with the authorities, but was told the only real option was to keep reporting the matter. By January 2025, she had launched formal legal proceedings. In March, a court issued an eviction order, but due to Spain’s Decree 11/2020 — emergency legislation introduced during the pandemic to protect vulnerable tenants — the eviction was suspended until the end of 2025.
Unable to continue living with the man, Estíbaliz moved in with her brother in June and is currently on medical leave, undergoing psychological treatment. “He’s a psychopath, and his only goal is to ruin my life,” she said. “He’s not right in the head. He hasn’t attacked me yet, but I’m afraid he might.”
She emphasized that she is not seeking financial compensation. “He owes me over €2,100, but I don’t care about the money. I just want my house back.”
Estíbaliz has now launched a petition demanding faster eviction procedures in cases involving non-paying tenants.
“I feel like crying every time I enter my own house. I turn the key and feel terror. I used to rent a room, and now I live with a squatter who terrifies me and whom I can’t kick out,” Estíbaliz writes. “You don’t know what it’s like to live under the same roof as the person who’s making your life miserable. Watching them destroy your house… and your life. And feeling abandoned by your country’s justice system because the squatter who lives like a king has more rights than you.”
“Sign to demand that the processes to evict a non-paying tenant from your home be expedited now,” the petition reads. It has already received more than 27,000 signatures.
In her appeal to the public, she added: “The law protects squatters more than homeowners. The courts and police have forced me to live with an abusive man. I just want to feel safe in my own home again.”
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