After ten years of running a licensed tourist accommodation, Toni is overcome with a great sense of helplessness. The reason is what happened with his last guests: a well-known DJ and his companions ended up inviting more than 100 people to the house, causing damage valued at more than €4,000.
As he first recounted in a letter and then in a conversation with Periódico de Ibiza y Formentera, a few days ago he accepted a last-minute booking for three days. In the end, they turned out to be six young Germans ‘eager to party’.
They arrived at his home on 6 September, and the excesses soon became apparent. While Toni was working on his farm, he could see the six guests shaking a coconut tree next to the rented house's swimming pool, some of them even climbing on it.
«I went up to tell them off and found them completely naked and acting erratically. They stopped, but the coconut tree, with its roots broken, is beyond saving. It's pure vandalism,» Toni lamented yesterday. He said that in ten years, this is the first time he has experienced anything like this.
The owner asked them to leave immediately, but they refused, assuring him that they would not cause any more trouble during their stay. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The agency that this neighbour works for also told him that, as the owner, he just had to put up with it and hope that the three days would pass quickly.
'They didn't leave on Sunday. The agency told me that they weren't going to leave, and they reiterated that I had no options and that the police wouldn't do anything. They made noise all day long, inviting guests over and partying,» he said.
Surprisingly, more people arrived at the house with suitcases on Monday.
The owner then discovered that the tiles bearing the name of the property had been broken and torn off at the entrance. Toni notified the Civil Guard, who showed up in the afternoon when nobody was home. They instructed me to file the corresponding complaint.»
It was Tuesday night when Toni began to hear a lot of noise, seeing minibuses and vans arriving at the estate that could transport around 100 people. After notifying the local police, and to his complete surprise, Toni was told that he could not enter his home to stop the party. The police also told him that the officers could not enter either, as the noise did not exceed the limits outside and, as they assured him, no one was being disturbed. ‘Who is supposed to take action in these cases? The police told me that I couldn't enter and that I shouldn't have rented it out. That was their solution,’ he lamented.
The next day, the tenants left at the scheduled time, leaving behind a lot of rubbish and damage estimated at €4,707. ‘They broke a number of things. The agency has paid me €1,000 from the deposit, but there is still money missing, and who knows who will pay for it. This is pure vandalism,’ he insisted.
"My conclusion is that the legal system we have is useless. They throw a party for about 100 people, which is clearly illegal, and we can't do anything about it, just wait for it to end. What's more, the authorities read us the riot act, informing us in detail of the crimes we could commit if we had the bad idea of entering the property to stop the party. I feel very helpless,‘ concluded Toni, who reiterated the feeling of ’anger and powerlessness" he has right now.
This citizen wanted to make the facts known in order to try to raise awareness and open a social debate on the defencelessness that property owners often suffer.