The Balearic Government have announced their private renters’ financial assistance programme.
It is quite a complicated procedure, which may not surprise you, but a couple of points probably will.
Consider this a brief editorial, my opinion of the scheme may not be shared by everybody.
Though these procedural documents are among the hardest texts to translate, I am relatively confident that I have the two key points I refer to correct – I have confirmed them with a native Spanish landlord.
No Arrears
First, the assistance is only open to people who are not in any rent arrears.
Am I being stupid, or is it reasonable to think that after three months of lockdown the people who would need rental assistance most are those with rent arrears?
Arguably those who do not have any rent arrears are demonstrating that they are coping without assistance, even if only just.
I am not saying it should only be paid to those with arrears, but to withhold a rent relief scheme from everybody who has rent arrears sounds just about as bonkers as any Balearic public admin I have ever come across.
Mallorca Bias
Secondly, and in this respect the scheme affirms the opinions of those who think Mallorca is totally out of touch with the needs of its Ibiza citizens, the rent relief scheme is only available to people who have a maximum rent of 900€.
So that rules out, what, 80%?, 90%? of Ibiza before we have already started.
Again, it seems counter intuitive. I could even understand if the scheme was capped at 900€, so if you had a rent of 1,200€ only the first 900€ would be covered under the scheme, but to arbitrarily exclude people above 900€ rental from even applying can only be based on some assumption that people paying more than this are living some life of unwarranted luxury, which in Ibiza is simply not the case.
Bonkers
So, in summary, providing you are lucky enough to have a super cheap Ibiza property, and you have enough money to have been paying your rent, you may be entitled to some rent relief.
If you are paying a normal Ibiza rent and don’t have enough money to be paying it, you’re on your own.
Link
Full details of the scheme should be available on this link, as published on Government Facebook page, however when we tried it Friday 5th June it wasn’t working, just leading to an error 404 page http://habitatge.caib.es Depending when you are reading this it may be fixed so worth a try.
