The Supreme Court demolishes the ‘tourist apartments’ in buildings where economic activities are prohibited

2023-12-12 15:59:36

Updated Tuesday, December 12, 2023 – 14:59

However, the Court clarifies that neither of the two signed sentences deals with applying the new regulation of the Horizontal Property Law.

Facade of the Supreme Court in MadridEMVivienda. The heat map of tourist apartments in Spain: Alicante already concentrates 12% of the total

The Supreme Court has just knock down the tourist apartments in neighborhood communities whose statutes expressly prohibit economic activities. In this way, the Civil Chamber considers that renting homes for tourist purposes is.

Specifically, the Court has issued two rulings in reference to these uses in two buildings. One in Oviedo and another in San Sebastin. However, he clarifies that In none of them is it about applying the new regulation of the Horizontal Property Law in which it is established that the approval of three-fifths of the owners must be given for the development of this type of actions, but to determine whether in the community statutes there is a prohibition on allocating the apartments for tourist use.

In one of the rulings, the Court agrees with the neighborhood community of the Giraffe lite building in Oviedo. These activities were carried out on two of its floors. Despite having independent access to the homes, the Supreme Court has ordered el cese as ‘tourist apartments’ in both villas.

Along these lines, he argues that it is a statutory prohibition that establishes that in the independent apartments of the building – housing – professional, business, commercial or commercial activities may not be carried out of any kind; reserving its use to exclusively residential use. Furthermore, the Court has considered that the defendant carries out an activity of a “business and commercial nature, provided by a commercial company.”

The Court reaches the same conclusion in a similar matter. This time, in San Sebastin, some owners They sued their community to have the ban overturned. which are included both in the promoter’s rules and in the purchase and sale contracts.

In this way, the Chamber has underlined and in view of the tourism legislation of the Basque Country and the applicable municipal ordinances, “the condition of economic activity of rental of homes that are offered or marketed as accommodation for tourist or vacation reasonsand which are temporarily transferred […] to third parties, repeatedly or habitually and in exchange for economic consideration.

Furthermore, it adds that since the activity involves a series of requirements and conditions, it implies the provision of services and the assumption of duties “inherent in the marketing of homes for tourist use that determine that the activity and provision of the tourist service is developed in one’s home.”

The Court then concludes that ““The rental of housing for tourist use is an activity included in the statutory prohibition.”so this interpretation is in accordance with the jurisprudence of the Chamber that “the limitations have to be clear, precise and express because the inclusion of tourist activity in the statutory prohibition is perfectly consistent with its letter and spirit, which is not “It is another to prohibit economic activity with a commercial, professional or business nature from being carried out in homes, as is the case with tourist apartments.”