The Final Word: expert advice for foreign residents

MANAGEMENT OF TOURIST RENTALS

Article supplied by Welex Lawyers & Accountants

In recent years, there has been a considerable boom in tourist rentals in Spain. As an owner of a residential property in Andalucía, you can offer it as tourist accommodation for rent by marketing or promoting it through tourist channels, such as real estate agencies, mediation companies or digital booking management channels. However, there are several potential conflicts when renting out your property for tourist purposes in Spain.

Can neighbours prohibit holiday rentals? If your property is part of a “community of owners” in Spain, your neighbours might not adopt a positive stance because their community is being frequented day in and day out by strangers, with the resulting neighbourhood unrest generated by constant comings and goings. If a majority of neighbours oppose this, a vote by three-fifths of the total number of owners (representing three-fifths of the participation quotas within the community) can lead to limitations or prohibitions on the holiday rental of your property in Spain.

Can the community prohibit holiday rentals in Spain? This will also depend on the constitutive title or statutes of the community. It will be necessary to check whether these set any limitation or prohibition on the destination or use of the dwellings. Even if, when the community was constituted and the statutes were approved, no type of limitation on the destination and use of the dwellings was established, it is possible that an owners’ meeting might subsequently agree to a modification to the statutes, which must be registered in the Land Registry and will entail a limitation on the development of this type of activity in the community. However, this limitation cannot have retroactive effects: i.e. if you are already using your property for tourist or holiday purposes in Spain, you can continue to carry out this activity, without the community being able to limit it. How do you know when the tourist or holiday rental activity began in Spain in the event that the board approves any subsequent limitation? It will be from the moment you have registered your property with the Andalucian Tourism Register. Any resolution at the owners’ meeting adopted after this date will not apply to the owner who wants to rent out their property for tourist purposes.

What if I want to invest in a property to rent it out for tourist use in Spain? If you want to buy a property for commercial purposes in Andalucía and the current owner already has it registered with the Andalucian Tourism Register, it should be noted that – even if the property is inscribed in this register – if the tourist rental activity was subsequently “prohibited” or “limited” by agreement at an owners’ meeting, the new purchaser would not have the right to continue with tourist rentals. They would be affected by any agreements adopted limiting such activity, such as, for example, an increase in community fees. If you want to acquire a property in Andalucía to rent it out, through holiday or tourist rentals, you must ensure that there are no impediments in the community statutes or board agreements that prohibit or limit this activity.

Welex Lawyers & Accountants C/ Ramón Gómez de la Serna 23, Local 7, Marbella Tel. (+34) 952 775 521 info@welex.es www.welex.es