TOURIST LICENCE - MORE RESTRICTIONS - Page 3

I agree Ray.  All the more reason to shut down the illegal lets to ensure taxes are being paid as and when required by all concerned.  As you say, if certain people are happy to ignore one aspect of the law then so often they will also be ignoring other aspects of the law too.  The tourist areas do need holiday makers, they spend money in the local economy and many businesses rely heavily on the summer boost in funds, so let's make it an accountable industry by forcing those involved to do things legally.  But that will only happen when residents start reporting the illegal lets rather than just moaning about them!

I totally agree with both Ray and Dave, hopefully the authorities will continue to clamp down on these illegal immigrants and their illegal "business" operations and in a Post- Brexit Spain that there will be no hiding place for them. In the meantime it is important to help the authorities by reporting these criminals so that they face the implications of their criminal enterprise. 

I agree with you but do you seriously think the police will come if you call them about illegal rental? I very much doubt it.

There have been a number of reports about early morning evictions from unlicensed rentals, so it sounds like they are now acting on info.  Just be sure the property you are reporting is definitely NOT licensed.

I was told by a solicitor that you can report it to the Police Local or Guardia Civil if their are renters in a property that you KNOW is not registered.  But you need to be sure it is not registered as they wont be best pleased if you are wrong and waste their time.

The other way is to write (in Spanish of course) to Jaefatura de los Servicios Toerritoriales de Turismo, Calle Churruca 29, 03003 Alicante.  You will need to send it registered post and include copy of your own passport and NIE and any evidence that you have with the full address of the property.  You can report any adverts or agents advertising the property in that way also.  

Just like to say , we applied for a holiday let licence  in October last year , hasn't passed the first stage yet , I know the usual people will say it's my fault or the illegals , but the Spanish need to do there bit , employ more staff and charge a little bit more to cover this , I could have had 10 familys staying this year , times that by a 1000 apartments that's a lot off income for la zenia not had and me .

Spain gave owners 3 years to get their act together and those owners who did apply before June 2018 seem to have had a very easy time of getting their licences. It is purely down to the huge numbers who didn't bother that we are now in this situation so yes, I'm one of those who will say it is their fault and not the Spanish and I believe Spain lost many more times what you are quoting over the years through non payment of taxes due on rental incomes.

Can somebody help me with this subtle point:

Is the 20% urbanisation surcharge liable on tourist lettings from:

a) The date the tourist license is received irrespective of whether the property is being let or not.

b) When the property is let whilst holding a tourist license 

My lawyer told me the surcharge would be due if I had a tourist license and the property is being let.  The issue is the tourist license was issued when covid hit and due to restrictions nationally and elsewhere I could not let the property, nor could I even visit the property myself.  The urbanisation wanted 120% of the urbanisation fee when no one was in the property for two years.  Is this correct or not?

It only applies IF the community have voted to ammend the community rules and is not retrospective. The community must vote at an AGM and there are minimum percentage votes required based on the total properties on the community and those properties must also represent a minimum percentage of the total fees. Not by my computer today and can't be 100% sure of the percentage level, but it is quite high. It would represent a 20% increase on the annual fee. If the community haven't voted to impliment this option then it doesn't apply.

Thanks for the prompt reply,

Yes, the urbanisation did vote in favour of the 20% increase.  However what doesn't seem to be clear is when thus applies.  For example someone may apply for a tourist license but never let out their property.  Would they still be liable for the additional 20%?  I'm my case I had one rental in two years but they wanted 20% for a full two years.  Very unfair to say the least.