The Autonomous Region of Valencia has approved a new Tourism Law, “Ley 15/2018”, published on the 8th of June, coming into force on the 8th of July 2018.
Article courtesy of The Citizens Advice Bureau Spain ( link below)
Important changes with regards to the registration of holiday rental properties like ´viviendas de uso turistico´ and ´apartamentos turisticos´
Obligation to register your property if you rent it out habitually.
- Habituality is supposed if one of the following criteria is met:
- – You´ve hired an agency to deal with promoting and renting out the property
- – You offer the property for rent for any period of time and offer additional services, typical of ´hosteleria´ like maid service or meals
- – You commercialise the property by using ´channels´ aimed at tourists, like booking sites
Besides the ´declaración responsable´ that you have to file to register your property if you want to start renting it out, you need to get a ´visto bueno´ from Town Hall, planning department first. A certificate of sorts that states your property can be rented out for holiday purposes. Town Halls have been given the authority to verify if the tourism activity that you plan to undertake is compatible with the Plan General de Ordenación Urbanistica. Local councils been given the authority to develop plans for their municipality with respect to the planning of tourism activities, the use of resources for tourism purposes etc. They can determine a maximum of tourist rental properties in certain areas, taking into consideration the effects on the resident community for instance, limiting the amount of rental properties in areas they consider to be ´saturated´. Or only permitting holiday apartments on ground and first floor level in buildings in certain areas, like Valencia city plans to do, according to announcements to the press by the local government there. These plans can be added to the existing PGOU´s.
Sanctions for non-compliance with regards to the obligatory filing of the ´declaración responsable´ have been ´upgraded´ from ´grave´ to ´muy grave´ , so now corresponding with amounts from 100.001 to 600.000 euros. The same goes for providing incorrect information on the ´declaración responsable´or for not being in possession of the necessary documents, like the ´visto bueno´ from Town Hall.
Not including the property registration numbers in all publicity and on booking sites (applicable for both owner/promotor of the property as those of the booking site – they are mentioned as ´solidary´responsible party) is considered a ´grave´ offence, with sanction amounts ranging from 10.001 to 100.000 euros.
Inspections with regards to ´viviendas turisticas´ will concentrate on the detection of properties that have not been registered on the Registro de Turismo.
Check this FAQs from our website for further info and links to forms to register your property.
The Generalitat has been given a window of max. 18 months to develop a Reglament to arrange for the practicalities with regards to implementing this new law.
Link to original article by CAB Spain
Disclaimer: this article does not claim to be a literal translation of the law, nor to be a complete summary. It is an interpretation of the articles deemed of most interest to CAB Spain members.
