Our costs welcome millions of visitors during each season. Not all of them are owners of an apartment or a property or stay in a hotel. The majority of them decide to rent a holiday home during the stay. A new legislation fights against the black market on this sector and wants to guarantee the maintenance of our touristic brand.
The new legislation addresses to the touristic sector not (like in the past and without any great success) to the housing sector itself. This law considers a “vivienda de uso vacacional” those properties that are conceded by the owner, directly or indirectly, to other persons in exchange of a consideration. Because of this, every accommodation must have a “cédula de habitabilidad” and ensure that there is enough furniture and equipment according to the number of offered places for visitors. The “cédula de habitabilidad“ is a proof of flat’s habitability which is prepared by the architect and has to be proposed at local housing authority.
How to convert a house or an apartment into a „vivienda de uso vacacional“? The law simplifies this procedure by using the so-called „régimen de comunicación previa“. Hereby it is only necessary to display the intention to rent the flat at the local administration and without any delay it could be started with renting. In this display the owner declares the responsibility to ensure the necessary amount of above-named equipment. He also needs, besides the identity card, the „cédula de habitabilidad“, a confirmation of energy supply and an insurance contract with an adequate coverage.
In this point the municipality is getting involved. This means that it is possible that the community charges a certain fee which could be established in the financial regulation. It would be desirable that administration wouldn’t take advantage of this to generate new revenue. The law intends to secure the quality of the offered holiday homes and it doesn’t want to increase costs which could have the opposite effect namely a promotion of shadow economy. The success of this law depends on an easy handling without further costs as well as on a resolute control.
A holiday homes status as a “vivienda de uso vacacional” means that it could not be turned into a main or secondary residence. The owner has to register guests’ personal data and, in accordance to local security service, send them to the central administration of the police. The stay in a holiday home with this status could not last longer than three months.
Another question that should be answered is that it is not allowed to split the holiday homes. Some owners of larger estates usually rent single rooms to different persons. Or in some cases there are different segregated fully furnished apartments. In these case the law states that rent is only possible if there is an own „cédula de habitabilidad“ for each lodging. If there is none, the „régimen de apartamentos turisticos“ is applicable. For this it is necessary to show a reception with at least 10 square meters. Furthermore the minimum standards for hotels like weakly cleaning are to be maintained.
Carlos Prieto Cid, Lawyer