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"2. Juicy money-making opportunities for enterprising criminals. In recent years, enterprising criminal gangs have begun specializing in locating and breaking into vacant apartments. Once they find a place, they quickly change the locks and rig the apartment to the neighbors’ gas, water and electricity supplies. They then “sell” the flat to a squatter, or group of squatters, for between €1,000-€2,000.

In this way, a burgeoning black market has sprouted up. In the Raval neighborhood of Barcelona, the market is controlled by a gang from the Dominican Republic; they charge around €1,500 for each property “sale.” The squatters get to live in a fully serviced apartment without having to pay rent or utilities for a period of around six months. If the flat in question is owned by a fund and the squatters don’t draw undue attention to themselves and the neighbors don’t cotton on to the fact they are effectively subsidizing their utilities consumption, they can often stay a lot longer.

4. Slow judicial process. If a property that is not a primary residence is occupied illegally, the owner can take one of two paths. He can go through the civil courts to try to recover the property, which means hiring a lawyer, paying court fees and often waiting a long time. At the very least, the owner can rest assured that at the end of it, he or she will recover the property.

Since the burst of Spain’s madcap housing bubble in 2009, squatting - the unlawful occupancy of uninhabited buildings or unused land - has become a major problem. By 2019, following a 58% surge in cases in five years, close to 100,000 properties were occupied by okupas (squatters), according to estimates by the Insititut Cerdá. The number does not include dwellings occupied by tenants who have simply stopped paying their rent, since this does not count as squatting . . .

Google Spain Squatters Paradise for full article

Here in Los Angeles it's about the same. The Police, Law and all governmental agencies will do NOTHING to help a landlord with Squatters. With one exception. If the squatters are causing trouble for neighbors, the City will warn the owner if they don't resolve the "issues", then in 30 days the City will Take the Property From the Owner and make it "City Inventory"!

This is why I have to resort to self-help. I employ a private security company with armed trained guards. They have the power to make an arrest, then force the Police to take them away to jail. All the owner has to do is agree to make a private person's arrest and the security firm guards, seeing the crime being committed, will make the arrest.

To go one step forward in Los Angeles each unit has to be registered and fee's need to be paid. If the unit is an Owners Unit, then it can't be rented out until it is switched back to a rental and fee's paid. I provide these documents to the Security Guard upon arrival, with receipts showing the utility bills are in my name too.

So the Squatter doesn't have a key, they broke inside. I had re-keyed the locks after my tenant moved out. The squatter is stealing utility's paid by the owner for himself. The unit is registered as an owners unit and not allowed to be rented out.

All of this and I'm paying for a monthly drive by service -- the security effects the arrest, hand cuffs the squatters and delivers them to the police.

They would get away with it in America, too. It's just that no one has figured that out yet.

In quite a few jurisdictions, it is difficult to get tenants out and all squatters have to do is to claim they are tenants and it becomes difficult to get them out.