Mallorca woman, 87, fights eviction after 60 years

Mallorca: Margalida, 87, fights to keep her flat in the Pere Garau neighbourhood of Palma, Mallorca, at a court hearing on Tuesday, 10 November. She has lived there for more than six decades and is being treated for cancer. At 12.30 pm, a court in Palma’s sa Gerreria district will consider whether her long-standing, low-rent contract should end. Margalida has asked her lawyer to make the hearing public.

How the rent dispute began

Margalida and her husband signed the tenancy agreement in 1963. After he died in 2007, the contract passed to her the following year. Her lawyer, Aina Díaz, says the rent was a little over €12 a month.

An investment company bought almost all of the building in 2021. According to Díaz, Margalida learnt of the change in ownership a year later. The bank account for paying the rent had also changed.

In 2023, Margalida returned to the flat after cancer surgery and a stay with her son. She found a notice saying she owed about €150 — a year’s rent. She paid it. Later, a fall left her with three broken vertebrae, and she stayed with her son again.

Díaz says rent arrears built up once more. Margalida’s son contacted the owners but, despite asking, was not given the bank details needed to pay. The lawyer accuses the owners of letting the debt mount before taking legal action.

What the court must decide

In early 2025, Margalida received a request for out-of-court mediation. The owners filed an eviction claim in May, arguing that late rent payments brought the contract to an end.

Díaz says the missed payments were not deliberate. She plans to argue that the court should take Margalida’s age and circumstances into account. Margalida is willing to have her old rent adjusted in line with the consumer price index, her lawyer says. She wants to remain in the home where she has spent most of her life.

Topics: Court cases · Housing · Palma

Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com