Squatter took over my £90,000 house for two years and refuses to leave… and now she’s demanding I pay HER – it’s outrageous

A British pensioner is waging a fierce battle to kick a squatter out of her Spanish holiday home after moving in two years ago and refusing to pay a penny in rent ever since.

Irene Cox is desperate to get rid of former tenant Carmen Bonnici after allegedly racking up almost £1,800 in unpaid utilities.

Artist Ms. Bonnici moved into the house in Arriate, near Ronda, in December 2021 and refused to pay after transferring a monthly deposit.

The squatter has repeatedly claimed the £90,000 house is unfit to live in, but has reportedly not allowed builders in to carry out repairs.

Mrs Cox, from Worcester, told MailOnline: ‘I’m worried my house is going to be destroyed, all the things she complained about were outrageous.’

Meanwhile, videos from Ms Bonnici’s Instagram account show her dancing and laughing around the house.

She has now also classified herself as a ‘vulnerable adult’, making deportation all the more difficult under Spanish law.

According to her website, her artworks sell for thousands of euros each, although it is not known if she has sold any recently.

In an email seen by MailOnline, she wrote to her landlord: ‘I know my rights. I know the law… unless you give me my money back now, you can both fuck.

“As for the builders, if they enter this site as long as I live here, they are committing an offense… if they come, I will call the Guardia Civil.”

It comes after MailOnline this year revealed how criminal gangs of squatters are targeting second homes of British people in Spain, with some even using children as ‘props’ to protect themselves from eviction.

Article 47 of the Spanish Constitution states that ‘all Spaniards have the right to decent and adequate housing’ – a sentiment that has created a legal loophole making it extremely difficult for homeowners to remove squatters who have invaded their properties .

Under Spanish law, squatters who have lived in a home for more than 48 hours and are deemed to have no other adequate housing cannot be evicted without a court order.

This process takes an average of 18 months and can be extremely expensive as claimants must pay for legal representation and bailiffs.

In the meantime, the only way to remove squatters is to pay squatter removal companies, many of whom charge thousands of pounds to forcibly evict them.

Mrs Cox and her estate agent husband are now at their wits’ end after an attempt to pay her before leaving also failed.

Despite fellow Briton Ms Bonnici being taken to court to deport her, no trial date has yet been set.

To complicate matters further, the tenant is demanding money from them for alleged ‘damaged artwork’ by termites and water leakage.

Mrs Cox said: “She is clearly out to get everything she can.

‘As soon as she moved in, she started drawing up a list of complaints. The truth is that the home was incredibly clean and in great condition. Our former tenant lived there for years without complaints.’

The former teacher continued: ‘She won’t let us in, she actually refuses to open the door.’

When contacted, Ms Bonnici said the house was “simply uninhabitable” and that she had been advised by the police and the town hall to “stop paying the rent”.

She claimed there were holes in the roof, dangerous wires and no functioning toilet or hot water.

Asked why, if it was that bad, she had stayed for two years, she added: ‘The landlord hasn’t given my money back so I can’t leave.

‘They said they would give it to me when I left the house, but I know they won’t.

‘Since then, more and more works of art have been damaged. They never offered to fix the termite infestation that ate most of my clothes.

‘I’m in a vulnerable situation, I can’t move, I’m not financially able to, I have no money.

“You can go from selling art for thousands of dollars to selling nothing.”