Short-term lets face strict new rules and regulations kicking in in July
New rules from July 1 will kick in for UK tourists warned. Short-term lets face strict new rules and regulations kicking in in July, with the seventh month of the year bringing huge changes for those who stay in accommodation.
Once July 1 arrives, all owners of tourist and seasonal rental properties in Spain must have a unique registration number to operate legally. But the Spanish Federation of Tourist Housing and Apartment Associations has warned that booked holiday homes could simply “disappear” from the system.
“Families who have booked an apartment or holiday home are likely to be left without accommodation, as a large part of the legal supply cannot be registered in the Single Digital Window system and will disappear from the platforms,” explained its president, Silvia Blasco, in a statement.
READ MORE Nationwide announces new pay rules which customers slam as ‘hypocritical’
Carlos Babot, a lawyer at Babot-Aranguren Asociados, told the Objective that signing people up has been “chaos”.
Homeowners across Spain must obtain consent from at least 60 per cent of their building’s residents before offering short-term tourist rentals.
“The squirt guns are to bother the tourists a bit,” Andreu Martínez told AP in Barcelona with a chuckle after spritzing a couple seated at an outdoor café. “Barcelona has been handed to the tourists. This is a fight to give Barcelona back to its residents.”
“We have encountered a lot of chaos, especially because of the criteria being followed by each property registry, which are different… You go to registry 9 in Málaga and they ask you for one set of documents, you go to registry 10 in Málaga and they ask you for a completely different set of documents,” he said.
All individuals or legal entities wishing to provide short-term accommodation rental services for a fee through an online short term rental platform, whether professional or non-professional, on a regular or temporary basis, are affected.
Hotels and similar accommodations, including hotel complexes, aparthotels, motels, hostels, campsites, and caravan parks, are excluded from this obligation.