Latest update on rentals

[fatherted]

   

Update 22 May: Despite the hopes and arguments of those who wanted to be able to offer and use private rentals regardless of their prohibition in tourism law, the Canarian Parliament has today approved the much awaited “regulación” which adapts its Urban Letting legislation â€" and the hotel association Ashotel is likely to be highly pleased with the outcome. For according to the regulation, private letting may only be undertaken in “non-touristic” areas and where such letting is not already banned by other legislation â€" as private holiday rentals are by tourism law.

These private rentals are now regulated in Canarian urban letting law, as constitutionally required, and do not come into conflict with Canarian tourism legislation, as the government always insisted would be the case given that its tourism laws have been ratified in Spain to the highest possible legislative and juridical levels.

It will be a bitter disappointment for many who hoped that the Urban Letting regulation would force the Canarian Government`s hand, and who believed that private rentals in holiday areas were a virtual inevitably. Even in those buildings away from tourist areas, private rentals may only be undertaken if the statutes of the community do not expressly prohibit them.

Canarian Government spokesman Martin Marrero said that with the new urban letting regulation, and the existing tourism law, the Canaries was now compliant with the requirement to regulate private holiday letting, and that it had been impossible to facilitate the demands of all sides.

The president of the lobbying association Ascav, Doris Borrego, said that her association needed to study the new regulation in detail, but that she felt it was largely in keeping with their demands, and that Ascav had never sought the ability for short term letting to be undertaken in holiday areas. The regulation was historic, however, she said, for the thousands of owners that Ascav represents who will now be able to conduct short-term rentals in other areas. As I`ve said before, Ascav`s constituency is mainly Canarians rather than the foreigners who own in the main tourist parts of the south.

The regulation also, as expected, requires any short-term letting to be initiated by official application and declaration, along with documentation confirming habitability such as a cedula. The regulation will now be drawn up, and will be drafted in English as well as Spanish â€" as soon as I have a copy I`ll post it.

[Elite of the forum]

Well thats seems as clear as mud to me ,what does it mean in basic English 

[Ivemovedon]

ditto

[bluefox]

another ditto ! 

[Spike On Q]

Seems to me that if you if you have a place in a nice quiet little town away from the coast and you are not taking money from the big boys you will be OK (subject to a few rubber stamps). Otherwise forget it!

[Spike On Q]

For instance, there are 100's of properties around us owned by people from Gran Canaria who only use them for one month a year They will now be able to short term let them

[woe10]

Well thats seems as clear as mud to me ,what does it mean in basic English 

It's in Gobbledigook, but Google Translate doesn't have it.

[chrisandco]

It seems from this that the hotel lobby has won the day.
If you have a property in a "touristic" area, you can't rent it privately. If you have a property in a "non-touristic" area, you can.
So, those with villas and apartments in Corralejo, Caleta De Fuste and Jandia will not be able to rent them.
That will do a lot of good for the bars and restaurants in the "touristic" towns!!!!!!

[Ivemovedon]

Daft. You can rent out in an inland village and annoy all the local residents who bought there for a quiet life, but you can't rent in an area made for tourism and compete with the large hotels. Let them get on with it, it will take a while but they will realise their error sooner or later. I'd love to know how many brown envelopes changed hands to come up with this grubby little number.

Talk about destroying the competition. They must be toasting with champers over a job very well done.

[Spike On Q]

Fortunately beer swilling, noisy, drunken slob families are not attracted to the quiet and peaceful parts of the Island and therefore will not be attracted to apartments and villas there. Can you imagine some big fat skinhead   bloke with his tarty wife and eleventeen skinhead kids staying in Pajara or Betancuria. Nah they much prefer the likes of Benidorm or Caleta where the beer is cheap and they can still get chips and gravy.

[Deso]

Anyway, back to the matter in hand.

From what I have seen regarding this latest legislation, the only possible hope there is depends on how they define a 'tourist area'.
Do they draw a boundary line around area's of the town or do they use the council plans of what your particular piece of land is classed as. Your individual property or complex may be built on a plot of land that is not classed as touristic in which case, subject to application and granting of aforementioned licence, you can rent short term, although not as a holiday let as such.

We await clarification. 

[Tamkid]

How would you stand renting a property of Tamaragua? it is classed as a Residential area and comes under the postal district of La Oliva. 

[Spike On Q]

Well there ain't any beaches locally and no hotels or tourist apartment complexes and only a couple of bars so not exactly Benidorm. If you can find anyone that would want to rent a house there for a couple of weeks as a "holiday let" well done

[Elite of the forum]

Trust me Spike 37 weeks of the year i heard someone had last year and not to shabby this year by all accounts its what people want nice and quiet no chav familys a couple of bars and a couple of places to eat ,suits alot of people down to the ground

[fifi]

Hi Deso the different areas are clearly marked on a map on the PIOF on the Cabildos website if you want to have a look.

This is from Janet Anscombes website....

*If you have a residential property you can let it out long term under urban letting legislation wherever it is, with a long-term residential contract.

*If you have a residential property you can let it out short term under urban letting legislation with a short-term specific purpose contract â€" the specific purpose not being a holiday let (because that breaches tourism legislation) â€" provided that the property is in a non-touristic area (see below) and that urban letting regulation prerequisites have been complied with (registration, declaration etc, as detailed HERE).

*If you have a touristic property, you cannot let it out privately for short-term lets. This is banned first by the new urban letting regulation which says that short-term lets must not be in touristic areas, and secondly by tourism legislation which says that short-term lets (at least under 3 months) are deemed to be touristic (unless coming under the terms of urban letting regulation) and so must be done through the sole agency system.

To clarify touristic and non-touristic areas, yes they mean “areas” not complexes. This will be officially clarified in due course, but I fully expect it to be a definition based on the land classification in an ayuntamiento`s PGO (general planning arrangements).

A final personal thought from me. Some are seeing this as providing more freedom in some way. I see the opposite because the regulation means that things have been tightened up since short term lets are now “regulated”. As such, short term lets will now only be legal if the owner has registered the intent to let out short term, complied with the requirements, furnishings, paperwork etc., and given a short-term contract. This means, effectively, that the days of genuine 3- or so month “informal” rental contracts are over!

[Spike On Q]

Lets hope that Tama falls under the "non tourist area" then. The owner can then make application to short term let but not for "holiday letting" purposes

To me this now clarifies the situation further, to a degree, but yet to be formalised, with mandatory levels of control at "urbanisation" and "land classification" area level. What it also suggests is that the authorities will look to impose the regulations more stringently than before,  otherwise why bother to do all this work.

It will also give disgruntled residents more ammunition when it comes to denouncing holiday letters when their beauty sleep is interrupted by noisy neighbours enjoying a late night booze up during their weeks holiday

Sadly the bottom line:  It was always been illegal to "short term or holiday let" without a license anywhere on the island. Now it's not good news for people conned into buying properties that positively fall outside the the new "allowable areas". Nothing has changed for them, there is still no legal way to "holiday let" and there is NO longer any ambiguity. [That is if they decide to abide by the new regulations, which large numbers of people have ignored to date, at their peril of risking a heavy fine]. If the government does impose these stricter regulations there could be trouble ahead.

[Spike On Q]

We've seen a few of the old names start to appear too - it is going to take time for people to come back without the fear of insults just because they express their own opinion and it differs from one a few people here who have got away with bullying and insults for too long

[Tamkid]

Thanks for that FiFi, this forum has certainly missed your regular contributions.

[Deso]

Hi Deso the different areas are clearly marked on a map on the PIOF on the Cabildos website if you want to have a look.

Hi Fi, you are still lurking then 

http://www.cabildofuer.es/portal/RecursosWeb/DOCUMENTOS/1/0_5214_1.pdf


If they use this as the definition of 'Tourist Area' and everyone stops renting their places out then it's going to get a lot quieter out there.

[woe10]

Trust me Spike 37 weeks of the year i heard someone had last year and not to shabby this year by all accounts its what people want nice and quiet no chav familys a couple of bars and a couple of places to eat ,suits alot of people down to the ground

And is this person licenced to rent out the property. If not, then they are not paying tax like the rest of us have to.

[fifi]

Thanks Tamkid. Hi Deso. I remember seeing a different map to the one you linked to. The mountain in Caleta was marked as mixed tourist and residential and most of downtown Caleta was Tourist. If I get a chance I will try and find it again. Still lurking.

[joyusj76]

I'm totally lost .....this might as well be in Chineese, rent , can't rent in Caeta, does anybody know. HELP.

[Spike On Q]

Simply put  -  you CANNOT [legally] rent out a property on a short term let in Fuerteventura without a license. No new licenses have been issued since 2003. If you do let out your property for less than six months you are breaking the law and may get fined a large some of money. QED

The new rules apply outside the tourist areas so do NOT affect the status quo in Caleta or Corralejo

[DaveW]

I am going to start a petition to ban long term lets, I could write a book on the grief we have had for the last couple of years with many disturbed nights from noisy, selfish inconsiderate neighbours that owners can't care a toss about as long as they get their rental income.

[Elite of the forum]

Trust me Spike 37 weeks of the year i heard someone had last year and not to shabby this year by all accounts its what people want nice and quiet no chav familys a couple of bars and a couple of places to eat ,suits alot of people down to the ground

And is this person licenced to rent out the property. If not, then they are not paying tax like the rest of us have to.

But you cant pay tax on illegal renting so im led to believe off all the lawyers on here but im sure they will thank you for your concerns woe 

[Tamkid]

Sorry to hear about your noisy Neighbors Dave. I have had long term lets all around me on Tamaragua without any noise problems, Spanish, Italian, English and a couple of Argentinians. We did have a noisy dog which was sorted within a week, that's been about it, obviously apart from New Years Eve.

[Elite of the forum]

Just out of interest i wonder how many of these people who bang on about rentees who live on the island actually rented before they bought ?

[Ivemovedon]

Fair point. I wonder if any checked then to make sure their landlord had a license and was legally entitled to rent. Easy to become holier than thou  when personal circumstances change.

Its a holiday island for gods sake not an old folks home. Thats why i can't understand these new laws which prevent rental in areas of tourism and could well push it even more into places where people have bought to be away from it all and really do deserve tranquillity.  Its also a myth that renting without a license means you don't pay tax. Its easy...you just declare it.

[DaveW]

We rented a similar property on the complex for 5 years before we purchased, as during that time the property next door was not occupied and didn't appreciate that the potential noise problems from the next door neighbours.

[chrisandco]

 >:(Had a look at the Cabildo website (thanks Fifi) and here is the plan showing the touristic areas.
http://www.cabildofuer.es/portal/RecursosWeb/DOCUMENTOS/1/0_5214_1.pdf
It includes the whole of Corralejo, including Parque Natural, and all of Caleta De Fuste and Nuevo Horizonte, including Chipmunk Mountain.
So, if the interpretation is correct, nobody will be able to rent for "touristic" purposes in these areas.
Again, a good result for the hotels and a bad one for the local bars and restaurants