Urbagestión backs down after evicting Maricarmen and proposes to the City Council that she return to her flat with an affordable rent

Urbagestión has made a U-turn just two days after managing to get Maricarmen forcibly evicted from the home where she had lived for 70 years. The company sent an "urgent" proposal to the Madrid City Council this Friday so that the woman can return to the same apartment through a stable and affordable rental, now managed by the Municipal Housing and Land Company (EMVS).

The plan involves incorporating the house, located at number 46 Alcalde Sainz de Baranda street, into the Reviva program or finding another formula with social services. Urbagestión would maintain ownership of the property and receive a guaranteed rent while the municipal company handles the contract, the relationship with the tenant, and part of the expenses.

The proposal comes after the property maintained the judicial procedure until the end, refused to postpone the eviction for humanitarian reasons, and dismissed the solutions proposed during the last hours of negotiation. Maricarmen ended up leaving on a stretcher, was put into an ambulance, and remains admitted to the Gregorio Marañón Hospital.

Neither the woman's lawyer nor the Tenants' Union had received information about the plan when Urbagestión publicly announced it. It has also not been specified how much Maricarmen would have to pay, for how long she could stay in the house, or what conditions the company would demand to temporarily hand over its management to the City Council.

"For us, it is not true because we have not received anything," a spokeswoman for the Tenants' Union responded. The City Council of José Luis Martínez-Almeida confirms that it has received the offer, but still has to decide whether to accept it and how it could fit into the municipal program.

A protected rental with advantages for the property

Reviva allows owners to temporarily transfer the usufruct of a home to the EMVS to be used for affordable rental. The owner maintains ownership and collects the agreed amount every month, even when the property is empty. The City Council also assumes the administrative and legal management of the contract.

The program offers other advantages. The municipal company takes care of the Property Tax (IBI), the ordinary community fee, home insurance, and usual repairs. It can also advance up to 45,000 euros without interest to renovate the home.

Therefore, Urbagestión would keep the apartment, receive a rent guaranteed by the City Council, and transfer a part of the expenses to public coffers. The municipal intervention that failed to prevent the eviction would now serve to ensure the economic conditions that the property demands to allow Maricarmen's return.

The move contrasts with what happened on Wednesday. For more than an hour, the defense tried to reach an agreement with the judicial commission and the company's representatives. It was proposed to suspend the eviction for a month, wait for the court to study the latest brief, and accept the help of a writer who offered to pay the difference in rent.

Lawyer Beatriz Duro then confirmed to "ElConstitucional.es" that no alternative went forward. "The property absolutely refuses everything," she denounced shortly before the National Police entered the home and Maricarmen was taken to the hospital.

Urbagestión now acknowledges that it received two emails from pianist James Rhodes offering to buy the house, although it maintains that they arrived after the eviction had already been executed. The company maintains that the property is not for sale and assures that the Ministry of Housing never presented a formal offer to acquire it. Isabel Rodríguez's department maintains that it tried to buy the home through the public company Casa 47 and that the property did not respond.

Urbagestión tries to impose its narrative after the eviction

The company has also issued a statement to deny that it demanded the 1,650 euros per month from Maricarmen, as denounced by her defense. It admits that it spoke of a reduced rent between 40% and 50% compared to the market price and that it received a proposal to establish a rent of up to 900 euros, paid jointly by Casa 47 and the tenant herself.

Urbagestión assures that this option lacked sufficient legal and economic guarantees. The negotiation ended with the company maintaining its eviction demand and with Maricarmen expelled from the house, a sequence that it now tries to correct through the intermediation of the same City Council that did not provide her with an adequate residential alternative before the eviction.

The company has also announced legal action against the Tenants' Union and is claiming 10,000 euros for having defined it as a "vulture fund". It assures that it has suffered "pressures, intentional disqualifications, and disproportionate and unjustified coercion," while mobilizations for the case are spreading across several cities.

Maricarmen has spoken from the hospital to thank the support received and ask for the protest to continue. "It couldn't be, but please fight," she conveyed. She also made it clear that her claim now goes beyond her personal case: "What I want is for this problem with vulture funds to be eliminated once and for all."

The woman remains under observation at Gregorio Marañón, tired and weakened after the operation. When she is discharged, she will temporarily stay with a relative. Urbagestión has already sent its proposal to the City Council, but has not yet presented it to Maricarmen or the lawyer who has been defending her right to remain in the home for years.