A British mother-of-two arrived at her three-bedroom holiday home in Ibiza to find it had been overrun by squatters using her home to take drugs and rent out her rooms, she has revealed. Sophie Robinson, 48, arrived with her two daughters at their family home in Cap Negret near Ibiza Town on April 5 to find it had been invaded and the locks changed. What was meant to be a restorative Easter family holiday turned into a four-week battle through the courts to oust the well-organised squatter gang, who destroyed most of the furnishings, stole everything and used the house as a drug den.
Mrs Robinson arrived at the property with her daughters, aged 21 and 16, to find her home had been invaded by squatters, known in Spain as okupas, last month.
When the court failed to grant an order to kick out the squatters, Mrs Robinson decided on April 11 to pay £4,300 (€5,000) to Desokupa, one of a group of companies that specialise in ousting squatters.
But the company was unable to get rid of the squatters. Worse still, the original squatters left and were replaced by organised criminals.
“They fitted an alarm system and cameras. We phoned the alarm company to say, how have you put an alarm system on a house which does not belong to you?” the mother-of-two said.
On May 5, a month after she discovered the house had been overrun, Mrs Robinson’s lawyer rang to say the police were about to raid the house after obtaining a court order to evict the squatters.
“All the heating had been on constantly, the drains overflowed, the mattresses were slashed, the locks had been changed so many times they had holes in the doors,” she said.
“Everything of ours had gone. It was all their stuff. There were drugs everywhere. The damage will run into thousands.
“The most important thing is, we got the house back. We were very lucky. When it started, my lawyer said this could go on for years.”
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The family hope their insurance will cover the damages but Mrs Robinson is not optimistic. She said the house is not a luxury villa but is close to her heart.
“My father built it in the 1960s. It means something to all of us. We have had fun times and sad times. My father went there before he died,” she said.
“I have scrimped and saved to keep that house. It means so much to me. It was heartbreaking.”
She said the island had in the last 10 or 20 years descended “into some circle of hell”.
Mrs Robinson said a German neighbour on the same street in Ibiza also had her home invaded by squatters and she believed it could be the same people after seeing one of them driving down the road.
“She has asked me if she can stay in my house as she cannot afford to stay in a hotel. She has been out of her house for a month.”
Mrs Robinson said squatters rent out rooms to people who cannot afford to live in Ibiza where prices have soared in recent years.
Dani Esteve, head of Desokupa, said out of 8,000 cases last year, his company had dealt with about 500 involving Britons and other foreigners, mainly in Mallorca, Ibiza and Marbella.
“Now the place with the highest number of squatters is Ibiza. Many take over big villas. People come over in summer and they find that their house has been taken over,” Mr Esteve told The i.
“They call the police but they are told that the police cannot do anything, so they end up calling a company like ours.”