Unusual eviction in Ibiza: forced to leave his “wooden house”

The Third Section of the Balearic High Court has upheld one of the most unusual eviction cases in Ibiza, where the housing crisis continues to give rise to situations that can even seem surreal, involving people clinging to any possibility of securing a place to live. The ruling orders a young man to leave a property because he does not have a valid legal title to justify his stay after being required to vacate by the current usufruct holder.

The dispute originates from a private agreement signed in March 2009. At that time, the mother of the now-evicted man sold the lifetime usufruct of two properties she owned to her partner. The contract stipulated that she, her parents and her children could continue living on the property, specifying for one of them the use of a “wooden house”.

After the couple separated and the owner left the property, he initiated legal proceedings to have his usufruct rights formally recognised, which were subsequently confirmed by the courts. In 2024, he sent two certified SMS messages requesting possession of the properties. When the occupants did not comply, eviction proceedings were initiated.

During the case, the young man’s defence argued that his residence was neither free nor without legal basis, but rather grounded in a right of habitation recognised in the 2009 agreement. However, both the lower court judge and now the High Court have rejected this argument.

The court emphasises that the contract did not establish any duration, rent or payment for the use of the property, and considers it “incoherent” that someone would acquire a usufruct only to render it meaningless by granting lifetime housing rights to the seller’s entire family. The ruling concludes that the situation amounted to a “tolerated occupation” based on the good family relationship at the time, which ceases once the rightful holder claims possession.

The final decision orders the young man to vacate the property and leave it “free and available” to its owner, with the warning that he will be forcibly evicted if he does not do so voluntarily. He has also been ordered to pay the costs of the appeal.

The court has, however, upheld the acquittal of the young man’s mother. Although the claimant insisted that she was still living on the property, she was able to prove through a residency certificate that she has lived elsewhere since August 2023, before the lawsuit was filed.

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