LEADER of up-and-coming centre-right independent party Ciudadanos says public authorities should have the power to investigate 'over-populated' homes.
Albert Rivera (pictured) says 'council control' over 'public and private space' should be linked to 'those actions necessary to ensure security and harmonious community living', and preventing crime.
Among such actions is allowing town halls to inspect properties believed to be occupied by too many people at once, and apply fines where necessary.
Rivera says the maximum allowed should be two people per bedroom - as in, six people to a three-bedroom property, four people in a two-bed home and so on.
Where homes are 'over-populated', occupants may be denied the right to register on the town's headcount register, the padrón.
Ciudadanos' proposed move is to prevent masses of people signing on the padrón at others' addresses, with or without their permission, in order to benefit from local services such as financial aid, healthcare and education.
It is also to prevent what they call 'toy-boat flats' - the expression referring to jerry-built rafts carrying a dangerously-high number of would-be African migrants, and meaning flats where immigrants live crammed like sardines with four or five to a bedroom in order to save money, so that practically everything they earn can be sent home to feed their families.
These over-occupied flats often end up with their tenants living in conditions not fit for a human being, and which are unhygienic and unhealthy.
But the Spanish Federation of Large Families says it intends to contact the party to obtain a full explanation.
"Although it seems clear that they want to try to prevent huge numbers of people living in small flats and in insalubrious conditions not conducive to health, but the way they have worded the proposal is far from ideal," says the Federation.
"It means a couple with three children living in a two-bedroom property - with the children sharing one room - would exceed this limit and leave the family open to fines."
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