On Wednesday, the Catalan Parliament validated Decree Law 1/2020 governing urgent measures to improve access to housing, which modifies the definition of an ‘empty home’ established by a previous decree from the Govern.
The decree, which the Consell de Garanties Estatutàries (CGE) considers unconstitutional, even though its opinion is not binding, has been validated with 77 favourable votes from JxCat, ERC, Comuns and CUP, and 57 votes against from Cs, PSC-Units and the PP.
The Catalan Government designed this decree to modify the definition of ’empty home’ due to the questions that could arise regarding its interpretation and the problems around legal certainty. It establishes that a dwelling shall be defined as empty once it has been unoccupied “without just cause” for a period of more than two years.
