ICAB devotes three free sessions to ADR in housing and real estate: 6, 13 and 20 November in Barcelona

The Barcelona Bar Association (ICAB) has organised a cycle of three sessions devoted to appropriate dispute-resolution methods (ADR, or MASC in Spanish terminology) in the field of housing and real estate. The sessions will take place on 6, 13 and 20 November 2026, from ten to twelve in the morning, in Room 1 of the ICAB Training Centre in Barcelona. Attendance is free and the cycle is organised by the ADR-ICAB Centre together with the bar's Mediation and ADR Commission.

A cycle on the most frequent conflict scenario in Spanish law

Housing concentrates an enormous share of Spanish civil litigation: urban leases, homeowners' associations, purchases with defects, evictions, clauses in construction and development contracts. With the Organic Law on the efficiency of the public justice service now in force, which turns the attempt at an out-of-court solution into a procedural requirement for a large part of these lawsuits, practical training in mediation and other ADR methods has moved from a specialisation option to a practice necessity.

The three sessions address precisely that: the characteristic conflicts of the real estate sector and the alternative routes to manage them, with an applied focus. The format of three mornings spread over three weeks also makes it possible to combine attendance with firm activity, a detail appreciated by anyone who has tried to fit an intensive course into their diary.

Three mornings, one practical goal

The distribution across three sessions is not accidental. It allows each morning to be devoted to a concrete block of sector conflicts, with time for cases and debate, instead of compressing the whole syllabus into a marathon day. For lawyers already advising homeowners' associations, landlords, developers or buyers, the cycle offers an orderly review of the available out-of-court tools and of how they articulate with the subsequent civil proceedings: what to prove in the claim, how to document the settlement attempt and what to expect from each route in time and cost.

Who should attend

The cycle is designed for lawyers working in civil and real estate law, but also for those practising as mediators or seeking to accredit ADR training before the courts, where accreditation is starting to become a tangible professional asset. Being free and in person in Barcelona, it is especially valuable for the Catalan legal community, although the subject matter is of national interest: housing conflicts know no regional borders, and the regulation of tense housing markets, which we analysed in our article on the 53 tense-market municipalities of Catalonia, adds an extra layer of negotiating complexity.

The cycle joins an ADR training offer that has grown notably since the reform came into force, but not all courses are equal: those organised by the bar associations themselves with their mediation commissions usually combine normative rigour with the experience of those already practising institutional mediation. Here, the double signature of the ADR-ICAB Centre and the Mediation and ADR Commission guarantees that practical approach.

Registration opens through the course page on the ICAB website, and early enrolment is advisable: free admission and in-person capacity usually translate into waiting lists. Complement your preparation with our practical guide to the ADR procedural requirement and check the rest of the calls in our events section and training section.