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Bilbao Resident to Continue Receiving RGI Despite Spending Over €25,000 on Garage Space

The Basque High Court of Justice validates that a garage purchased over a kilometer away can be considered a necessity linked to the primary residence.

Generic image: Car key and garage door opener on a table, with blurred financial documents and a partial view of Bilbao in the background.
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Generic image: Car key and garage door opener on a table, with blurred financial documents and a partial view of Bilbao in the background.

The Basque High Court of Justice has ruled in favor of a Bilbao resident, reversing Lanbide's decision to suspend her RGI, stating that purchasing a garage is not an exclusionary income.

The High Court of Justice of the Basque Country (TSJPV) has upheld an appeal filed by a resident of Bilbao against the decision by Lanbide to suspend her Guaranteed Income (RGI). The court has ruled that the acquisition of a garage space should not be counted as atypical income nor as an exclusionary factor for continuing to receive the benefit, even if it is located more than a kilometer from her home.
This judicial ruling overturns a previous decision by a Bilbao court that had dismissed the beneficiary's lawsuit and upheld the suspension of aid by Lanbide. The case dates back to March 2024, when Lanbide opened an RGI review file for the claimant. Two months later, the agency decided to suspend the right to receive the benefit, considering that certain financial transactions—including a personal loan—should be counted as income, reducing the amount for several months to zero.
Specifically, the dispute centered on a loan of €25,900 requested by the beneficiary to jointly purchase a garage space in Bilbao with another person. The administration considered that the transaction generated countable income, thus justifying the suspension of the aid.
The Basque court has determined that the loan does not constitute real income but rather a "burden that must be repaid," and therefore cannot be interpreted as an effective increase in economic resources.
Furthermore, the Court emphasizes that the acquisition of the garage space cannot be seen as unrelated to housing needs within the urban context of Bilbao, where access to parking is particularly challenging. In this regard, the court interprets that, considering the current social reality, the garage space can be functionally linked to the habitual residence even if it is located slightly more than a kilometer away.
"The difficulty of owning automobiles in Bilbao is evident, as is parking them, and the need to possess one. Hence, we do not consider the acquisition of a garage space to be a superfluous, accessory, or unnecessary act, but rather a necessity for habitability in the city of Bilbao. That said, the distance between the residence and the garage location does not seem exaggerated or anomalous to us, and therefore we consider it feasible to include the garage space acquired by the plaintiff within the concept of housing, which, let us not forget, was purchased at 50%, indicating both the claimant's circumstances and the utility of the asset," states the judicial ruling, concluding that the suspension of the RGI was not justified and ordering the cancellation of Lanbide's resolution.
The sentence includes a dissenting opinion from one magistrate, who defends a different interpretation, arguing that the applicable regulations would allow the garage space to be counted as assets, as it is located more than a kilometer from the beneficiary's home, which would exclude it from being considered an element linked to the habitual residence.

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