New Rules pass by Community of Owners
Buying a Spanish property with the intent to rent it out? Beware of rules passed by the Community of owners.
If you or someone you are advising are going to offer the property for any short term rentals, it is important that you find out from the community of owners if there are any restrictions. Most regions in Spain have legal requirements on penalty of large fines that oblige registration and inspection of your property to enable use for short term holiday rentals of less than 3 months. Rentals of more than three months are not considered holiday rentals and do not require registration.
Law 49/1960, of July 21, on Horizontal Property, in its current wording establishes the possibility that Communities of Owners can agree to limit tourist rentals of properties within communities of owners. This limitation will not have any effect if you have already registered your property with the Regional Tourism Registry. The consequences of passing these types of measures at annual general meetings of communities of owners are different depending on the date the agreement to adopt rentals is affected and if the properties are already registered or not with the Tourism Registry.
- In the case of properties registered with the Tourist Authority after the agreement of the Community of Owners to limit or prohibit tourist rentals, an application to cancel the registration could be initiated by the Community, with possible actions by the Community of Owners against the property owners for breaching the agreement.
- In the case of properties not registered with the tourist authority, a sanctioning file could be initiated for the exercise of a tourist activity without having communicated its commencement.
- If your property is already registered before the community of owners pass a rule to limit rentals, you can continue with your activity
Communities of Owners can also reach other agreements, such as increasing community fees for those property owners who rent full or part time by up to 20% as compensation to the community for extra use of the common areas of visitors.
If you are thinking of renting your property, contact us to assist with registering the property with the relevant authorities, to review the minutes of community of owners and submit your quarterly tax returns in Spain.
