Okupas and your island home: what the law really says in 2026

Every summer, the foreign press rediscovers the Spanish "okupa". The stories are real enough to worry anyone who owns a home on Tenerife or Fuerteventura and lives a plane ride away — and vague enough to get the law wrong almost every time. Here is what actually protects your island home in 2026.

Two crimes, not one — and the difference decides everything

Spanish law separates two situations:

• Allanamiento de morada (art. 202 of the Criminal Code): entering or staying in someone's dwelling against their will. Prison of six months to two years — one to four years if there is violence or intimidation.
• Usurpación (art. 245): occupying a property that is not anyone's dwelling. The common, non-violent version (art. 245.2) is a minor offence punished with a fine.

"Dwelling" is the hinge — and it is the point most owners abroad miss. The Supreme Court settled in 2020 (judgment 587/2020) that a second or holiday home is a dwelling too, even if you are not there, provided it is furnished, keeps its water and electricity connected and you genuinely use it from time to time. A lived-in holiday home in Costa Adeje is legally much closer to your bedroom than to an abandoned building.

The "48-hour rule" is a myth

No Spanish statute gives the police a 48-hour window — you will not find that number in any law. What actually matters:

• If the property is a dwelling in the sense above, staying inside against your will is itself an ongoing crime, and the police can act to end it without waiting for a court order.
• If it is not a dwelling — an empty flat awaiting sale, a bare investment property — the police will generally not remove anyone once the occupation has settled; you need a judge.

The practical lesson: report the occupation immediately, and be ready to prove the home is a real dwelling — furniture, utility bills in your name, photos, the neighbour who saw you at Easter.

What changed in 2025 — and what didn't

Organic Law 1/2025, in force since 3 April 2025, moved these offences onto the fast-track criminal procedure (juicio rápido): court appearance within days and trial within about a fortnight, instead of months. Two honest caveats the headlines tend to skip:

• The reform is procedural — penalties did not change, whatever some alarm-company websites claim.
• The public prosecution service clarified (Circular 1/2025) that the fast track covers break-ins into dwellings and violent occupations; the classic peaceful occupation of a non-dwelling remains a minor offence tried through the ordinary channel.

In short: strong, faster protection for the home you actually use; slower but workable routes for empty property.

The civil route still matters

For a home that is not anyone's dwelling in the criminal sense — the empty flat, the house awaiting sale — the 2018 "express eviction" (Law 5/2018) lets a private owner sue even unidentified occupants. They then have five days to produce a title that justifies their possession (a lease, for instance); if they cannot, the court orders the home handed back, and that order is not open to appeal. It is designed exactly for this scenario — and it must be pleaded correctly from the first page.

Two things you should never do: cut off the water or electricity, or change the locks with occupants inside. Either can turn the owner into the accused — coercion is an offence of its own (art. 172).

If you live far away: a short checklist

1. Keep the home visibly lived-in — furniture, connected utilities, personal effects.
2. Have someone local (a neighbour, a property manager) who checks it and can call the police, and you, the same day.
3. An alarm connected to a monitoring centre shortens every deadline that matters.
4. Keep the title deed and recent utility bills where you can produce them from abroad.
5. If it happens: report it at once, do not negotiate, do not force your way in — call your lawyer first.

One more thing the headlines omit: the official numbers are falling. 14,875 occupations were reported across Spain in 2025 — 9.4% fewer than the year before — and the Canary Islands are not among the regions driving them. Caution, yes; panic, no.

An occupied home is recovered with speed and paperwork, not with shouting at the door.

Our property team acts for owners who live abroad, from the first police report to the recovery of possession — talk to us.