As you may already be aware, Spain’s Law of Urban Rentals (Ley de Arrendamientos Urbanos) was reformed in June 2013. Included in that reform was a key decision to transfer from the central government, to the autonomous regions of Spain, the responsibility of regulating holiday rentals agreements (holiday rentals are considered to be those which are of a period of two months or less).
This transfer of responsibility lead to an absence of legislation across the board, as many regional governments (including that of Andalucia) did not previously have in place their own independent regulation regarding holiday rentals. This led to a considerable number of fines being levied on owners for non-compliance, who found themselves unable to comply as a result of this conflict between central and regional legislation on the subject.
Following a considerable delay, (caused largely as a result of the temporary suspension of the Junta de Andalucía in 2013) the regulation of holiday rentals in Andalucía was finally approved in February of this year and came into effect on 11th May 2016.
Registration as a holiday rental
The regulation introduces, among many other obligations, the obligation of all owners of properties offered for holiday rentals to register said property with the Tourism Registry of Andalucia, as it is now considered that holiday rentals constitute a tourism service.
Registration of a holiday rental property with the Tourism Registry is compulsory in order to advertise your property in any way (e.g. estate agencies, accommodation websites, etc.) and the breach of this obligation, or any of the other extensive number of obligations contained in the new regulation, may result in an owner being liable for a fine of up to 18,000 €.
Additional obligations
In addition to the principal obligation to register the property, owners are required to make sure that their property and the service being provided meet certain standards and other conditions, as demanded by the regional government of Andalucia, all of which are subject to inspection by its Department of Tourism.
These are similar to those imposed on other forms of tourist accommodation, and relate to matters such as:
It has, therefore, now become essential that property owners offering their property for holiday rentals are fully aware of all their obligations in order to avoid the risk of substantial fines being imposed in the event of any breach of the new regulations.
Gabriella Mary Trussler Rowland
Lawyer
4408 Ilustre Colegio de Abogados de Almería
