Two disability organisations lodged today a complaint against Spain for failing to ensure the rights of persons with disabilities to adequate housing, especially due to problems with its ‘Horizontal Property Act’. The complaint was submitted to the European Committee of Social Rights by the European Disability Forum and its Spanish member CERMI.
The complaint alleges that Spain is breaking several articles of the European Social Charter by making it difficult for persons with disabilities to have accessible housing. This is manly due to the inadequacy of a law called the ‘Horizontal Property Act’, which sets legal requirements for accessibility for persons with disabilities in residential buildings.
The complaint outlines that many people remain ‘trapped in their houses’ due to the excessive limits to their rights improve accessibility in common areas of buildings:
- A lack of public subsidies for these improvements (only 10% of the communities that undertake improvements receive subsidies);
- A low annual cost threshold to trigger the need to approve the improvements by a majority of the buildings’ owners;
- An excessively complicated list of bureaucratic requirements needed to present these initiatives to the groups of owners.
The complaint states that:
Leaving these decisions to private will, either the lack of sufficient funds or, even, the lack of empathy of the neighbours, can effectively condemn persons with disabilities and elderly persons to not being able to leave their house.
These conclusions are not theoretically. The complaint shares stories such as Antonio who lives in Madrid and has not left his house in 5 years, except transported by firefighters or ambulances, as the building association refuses to add a lift chair to their building (by 20minutos.es). Tomi Sanchéz, who is in Bilbao, is also unable to leave her house as neighbours have not agreed on installing a lift (by CadenaSer). And these are only 2 of the over 100.000 persons that are trapped in their homes.
Related documents
- Collective complaint ‘European Disability Forum v Kingdom of Spain’. (PDF)
- CERMI: El CERMI abre camino al litigio estratégico internacional por el derecho a la vivienda de las personas con discapacidad en España
Contacts
André Félix
Communications Manager – European Disability Forum
Gema Piñeiro
Responsable de medios y prensa – CERMI
The European Disability Forum is an umbrella organisation of persons with disabilities that defends the interests of 100 million Europeans with disabilities. EDF is a unique platform that brings together representative organisations of persons with disabilities across Europe. It is run by persons with disabilities and their families. EDF is a strong, united voice of persons with disabilities in Europe.
The Spanish Committee of Representatives of Persons with Disabilities (CERMI), is the Spanish umbrella organisation representing the interests of more than 4.74 million women and men with disabilities in Spain. The mission of CERMI is to guarantee equal opportunities of women and men with disabilities and to protect their human rights, ensuring they are fully included in society.