absent owners rules

hope someone can help on this. short story long. house next door is (was?) owned by uk based guy. rented for last 5 years to a total p***k and his lush (spainish). about 2 years ago i contacted owner as i had just about enought of his tenant. owner informed me that the rent had not been paid for 6 months and he was starting legal proceedings. owner then lost job and hit ill health and could not afford proceedings or to pay mortgage. about a year ago bank (spainish branch of english) wrote and told him they were going to repo the house. while feeling sorry for owner and his woes i was pleased as i thought the bank might get rid of this t***er. however he is still in situ and has started working from the house resulting in all kinds of " strange" people turning up at all hours of day and nite. owner now tells me he has heard nothing more about the repo of house but thinks the renter has and i quote " applied to take control of the house under absent owners rules" have not been able to contact owner to ask where he got this from. anyone ever heard of this "rule"

Renting rights: Depending on the contract he has with current owner, the Bank will be obligued to respect it or not.

If what he is trying to get through absent rules is the ownership on the house, he would need 30 years of stay for this to happen

go raibh maith agat  ( irish for thank you very much)