My investigative agency Octopus often deals with the verification of the integrity and reliability of the renters on behalf of the future landlords and during the years I have investigated on individuals that have never paid a single month’s rent, occupying properties for years or even decades.
The 86-years-old Ennio Di Lalla, after being away from home for some days due to health checks, found his home, located in the ‘Don Bosco’ district in Rome, occupied by Rom, together with a change in the locks of the doors. Fortunately, the old man was helped by the neighbors and promptly reached out by the attorney Alessandro Olivier that was able to quickly arrange and speed up eviction procedure. Speed up so to say, as the justice (but I think also its representatives) takes its own times. It took 3 weeks to free the apartment from the trespassers.
Probably the mediatic uproar had a role too, otherwise the poor old man would have never had his house back. My investigative agency Octopus often deals with the verification of the integrity and reliability of the renters on behalf of the future landlords and during the years I have investigated on individuals that have never paid a single month’s rent, occupying properties for years or even decades.
When Mr. Ennio’s apartment was finally cleared up from the authorities, it changed from slow and unforgiving justice to grotesque and bureaucracy -full justice, because the apartment could not be returned to the as it was seized by the judicial authority. The poor Ennio had to wait longer to have what was left of his apartment turned into a dumpsite back, even though his attorney came up with the bright idea of naming him judicial guardian of his own residency.
As private investigator, I constantly bump into the slowness of the Law and above all its representatives. I know from first-hand experience that some strategy apparently effective to rescue the clients of my investigative agency Octopus from their troubles could turn into traps made of bureaucracy and “dura lex, sed lex”. And this because timescale of the Law rarely considers reality and its representatives don’t always strive to actually help citizens in difficulty.
Among the most absurd situations in the relationship landlord-tenant, the detectives of my investigative agency Octopus had to follow a case of a reckless owner who had rented out his apartment to two women, who turned out to be prostitutes that were receiving their clients in the rented residency. The landlord reported the situation to the Police but was told that prostitution is not an offence in Italy, while he risked aiding and abetting as owner of the location where the said paid intercourse had place. It was also totally useless to point out that the prostitutes used and dealt drugs. The situation worsened day by day, without any intervention by the authorities, while the number of ‘workers’ in the flat turned into a brothel also increased. But it was this very detail that provided the way out for the client of my detective agency Octopus: one evening my detectives, who were in charge of the surveillance of the now five prostitutes, told me that three of them were arguing furiously in the street and I ordered them to get close enough to get a video and audio of the argument. The reason for the argument was that the latest woman to arrive had not paid her fee yet for the use of the flat to the two tenants and the landlord was able to get rid of the troublesome brothel because of the contractual clause which excluded the sub-letting.