The comment came in response to proposals this week that the new tourist law governing tourist rental property will include a clause in which the community of an apartment block, the owners of the properties, will decide if they want properties used as self catering accommodation and if they do, what the rules are.
Barcelo said that with regards to the rules, he was referring to the hours guests must keep and how they may use the communal swimming pool area and other attractions the block in question may offer. Initially, the idea was met with disdain from opponents to tighter restrictions on the holiday let market but Barcelo said yesterday that it is the only clear way in which the rights of the owners of properties in any given block can be defended - by letting them decide what the rules are.
“It will be they who will decide if an owner should be issued with a permit to rent out the property and what other conditions and requisites set out by the law must be complied with,” he added.
“We know this is a controversial topic, but what better way for the situation to be managed than by the people who have to live in the block, next door to tourists coming and going every few weeks. But, nothing has been decided yet and we are open to debate with all sectors involved in the holiday rental business as we move towards drawing up new amendments to the tourist law in time for next summer.”
16 comments
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You couldn't make it up. Complaints of too many tourists, so what do they do ? Give hoteliers money to reform their hotels with more capacity, and approve the construction of a huge new 800 room hotel in Palma Nova. Problem solved.
In reply to Julian Simms, below. For your information the LAU (or tenancy act) contains no mention of lower limits to the duration of the rental contract, so there is no illegality anywhere.
I want the all-inclusive hotels not to top their guests up with cheap alcohol and then kick them on the streets at midnight for others to deal with. I want hotels not to play loud music which annoys their neighbours. It isn't going to happen though because hotels are a law unto themselves.
Re comment on hoteliers and relationship with the owners of MDB...spot on. MDB supports anything that further spoils our island. Even how to spell its name properly ;
The law allows owners to rent their properties long term, not short term. Many owners have, illegally, applied the law to their own advantage by renting short term.
Steve Riches. On the contrary. Which is why dogs cannot be banned, neither can one's right to let their property. It's a democracy that allows this. In a new block Statutes can be written to prohibit certain activities, but cannot detract from an owners democratic rights. This is why Barcelo will never get what the Federation of Hoteliers want, it would attempt to dictate, which would create anarchy today.
Steve, Palma Nova - comment below... If the apartment block is enshrined in the Spanish law of community of owners, then yes: those owners in that democratic community DO set their own rules. What's the problem? Are you suggesting that anarchy should replace democracy?
100% agreement. But that's not what's being proposed here. That a group of owners can ban letting is absurd, and only exists in Barcelo's World. What about if a group of owners don't want dogs pee in their lifts, can they prohibit dogs.
Owners have the right to let or not to let their apartment, but many such apartments are in blocks of residents who are not holiday-makes, and are a community of owners subject to Spanish law, and have an elected President and committee. They set rules, voted on democratically at an AGM, which set out such things as the hours when a swimming pool may be used, where to hang your washing, and a time beyond which noisy partying may be limited. This makes sense when a number od residents need to get up early for work. It isn't illegal for an owner in a Community to rent out their flat to holidaymakers BUT it is the owner's responsibility to make sure the holidaymakers adhere to the rules which have been democratically set by a vote of owners in the block. It makes sense.
Wow, what is it with holiday rentals every week. Have the Hoteliers Federation bought the Ultima Hora or what? Is that the only issue that "needs addressing" in Mallorca ?