In the war between communities of neighbors and tourist floors there is a key date, on April 3. And favors the first

With the influx of tourists in Historic maximumsthe residential market Tensioning and the price of housing climbing until Nourish With those of the brick bubble, administrations have launched themselves to regulate tourist floors. In Madrid, Barcelona either Valencia The municipalities have moved file to put limits and in Seville they have even considered ending the illegal offer by closing the tap. Literally. From April 3 who want to devote themselves to holiday rental will have to deal with a new challenge: neighborhood communities.

If until now they were the ones that suffered the most tourist floors, they are about to become the opposite: a way to stop their proliferation.

What happened? That on April 3 a change of the Horizontal Property Law which will fully affect the relationship between neighbors communities and tour floors. And it will also do so in favor of the former, expanding its margin to stop the proliferation of vacation rentals. Legal change is included in the Organic Law 1/2025a rule published in the BOE earlier this year, but which has a period of three months to enter into force.

What does the law say? Basically it establishes that anyone who wants to rent their apartment to tourists must get permission from most of its neighbors. And what is more important, has to have that collective ‘ok’ before leasing the floor. “You must previously obtain the express approval of the community of owners”, Clarify the new standardwhich also specifies that the decision must be made with a broad support of the three fifths of the owners.

Wasn’t it so far? The legal change gives more tools to neighbors communities when limiting tourist rentals within their block, but that does not mean that until now they have had their hands tied. On the contrary. He Royal Decree 7/2019which entered into force six years ago, already provided that the communities could “limit or condition” the holiday rentals in the building if the three fifths of the owners agreed so.

And can they report? Yes. Now the law goes a step further. It speaks of the need to obtain “previously the express approval” of the community and pronounced on the margin of maneuver that the neighbors have, even about the possibility of denouncing in case they detect a rented floor without their placet.

“The president of the community, on his own initiative or of any of the owners or occupants, will require those who carry out the activity, without expressly approved, the immediate cessation of the same, under the warning of initiating the judicial actions,” indicates the law published in January.

Does it have retroactive effect? No, the legal change will not have retroactive effect on the apartments that are rented respecting the norms. The text Published in January it is quite clear about it: “That owner of a house that is exercising the activity prior to the entry into force of the law, which has previously been accepted to the tourist sector regulations, may continue to exercise the activity with the conditions and deadlines established in it. “

The new law also echoed another of the powers that communities have and appeared already reflected in The 2019 decree: The whole of the neighbors may apply to the owners of tourist floors a “special quota” or “an increase in the participation of the common expenses of the house”. Of course, that increase should never exceed 20% and the decision must also be endorsed by a lazy majority of the three fifths of the owners.

Is it a novelty? It is a novelty the entry into force of the law on April 3, but probably caught by surprise a few owners of flats and communities of neighboring. And not only because the regulations have been published in the BOE January 3. The government had been looking for the way to “empower” the neighbors in the face of the proliferation of vacation rentals and months ago he acknowledged that one of the ideas he had in mind was to give communities a veto power.

“What we want is that the authorization of the neighbors be necessary, with a major I advanced In July, Minister Carlos Body in RNE.

Images | Stay Grouted (Flickr) and Tomáš Gal (Unspash)

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