Evicted with two children: a mother on Gran Canaria fights back

The legal representatives of Jennifer Brito, who was evicted on 13 October for non-payment of rent from the property where she lived with her two young children in the Pedro Hidalgo neighbourhood of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, have lodged an appeal against the order under which the eviction was carried out, seeking to have it declared null and void.

This was reported on Saturday in a statement by the neighbourhood movement Derecho al Techo, which has claimed that the request for protection submitted prior to the eviction, a municipal report declaring this family to be vulnerable, «did not receive a specific response», and is therefore calling for «an examination of the possible legal consequences of this omission».

The application for reconsideration against the procedural order of 9 October 2026, issued by Court No. 7 of the Civil Division of the Court of First Instance of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, was lodged on 15 October and challenges the fact that the court’s decision «referred to a previous order, dated 9 September, without providing a specific response to the new applications for protection submitted on 1 and 8 October, under Royal Decree-Law 29/2026, published on 7 October and in force from 8 October», known as the ‚Maricarmen‘ decree.

Las Palmas: Application for protection remained unexamined ahead of eviction

«The application for protection was lodged prior to the eviction and was to be examined in accordance with the legal framework invoked by the defence. The appeal argues that it was necessary to expressly determine whether the conditions for applying the measures provided for in the new legislation were met and whether the eviction should be provisionally suspended whilst the court issued a ruling,» explains Derecho al Techo in its statement.

This movement points out that the woman concerned «was in a situation of particular social, economic and housing vulnerability» and that, «according to the local authority report of 13 October 2026, the household had no known alternative accommodation that would guarantee their immediate housing».

The city report is to be incorporated into the proceedings retrospectively

As this report was issued after the contested order, Jennifer’s defence team requests that «the report and the other documentary evidence be admitted and taken into account in the proceedings».

«It is not a question of demanding that the courts necessarily issue a ruling in favour of families, but rather of insisting that their claims be examined in accordance with the applicable legislation and that decisions be set out explicitly and with proper reasoning, particularly when the loss of a family’s main residence, where there are children, is at stake,» states the brief by Derecho al Techo.