Tourist license application Refuse/Approve

In the first instance it depends on how your community votes. Used to be one only allowing it but now needs a majority vote if you want to stop rentals. We allow those with a current licence but no more. The vote has to be all owners, not just those who attend the AGM.

Next the council has to agree that the property meets the requirements and if they will allow any more tourist licences. Guardamar, for example, only allows those blocks of flats that are specifically built for rentals and those that are detached properties in their own grounds to obtain a licence.

Finally the regional ministry has to agree to it.

Many councils are now restricting the amount of licences granted so it's not a done thing when you apply. 

Your first port of call will be you community of owners to see if they allow this. 

As Marcliff shares your first stop is the association. Adding extra fees to one owner is a likley non starter, but there is an effort to control rentals these days, so thinking the floodgates will open is a very unlikely scenario. Also, trying to stop everyone from obtaining a license is also not likely to happen. 

We charge 10% extra on community fees for those who rent their properties. 

You are right to be concerned.  The very thing you are worried about for your community has happened on ours and ruined the place.

From my reading of Art 17.6 of 17.12 of LPH you can only prohibit vacational rental if the Statutes expressly say no economic activity can be carried on in the Community.   You can convene a meeting, where 3/5ths of the total Community Members by Quota must vote for restrictions and conditions for vacational rental. Those not present at the meeting have 30 days to return their vote. You can lay down that a property owner renting for holiday purposes must have an insurance policy to indemnify the community and any owners for damaged caused by their renters. You can take legal proceedings against owners whose vacational renters cause noise and disturbance under "Just Cause" and prevent them from renting in the future.  

Your Administrator will be well versed on these new laws so will be able to guide the Community on how to proceed.

Bee

I would ask 2 questions, are there really that many that it 'ruined' the place, and if so why was it not addressed by your association BEFORE it was ruined? I'm not a fan of these rentals, but 1 or 2 in an area isnt the end of the world 

I would commend the homeowner mentioned in the first post for at least having the decency/integrity for seeking to apply for the licence (as on the assumption that is ultimately approved and accepted by the community it then puts on additional responsibilities around providing details to the police etc).

The bigger problem in my mind are the liars who everyone is pretty sure (but obviously can't prove) are actually letting but claiming that they provide it free of charge to friends/family. We certainly had one property in our community was like that (unless they had a very very large and diverse range of family/friends who changed each and every year!) While them likely avoiding tax on the income is frustrating, I'd be more worried that they wouldn't be carrying the appropriate insurance etc.

Thankfully, the property in question changed hands and was ultimately rented out to permanent residents and the problem went away. But if you had a multitude of those in one community it would be very irritating to say the least.

I am sure on our Community there are lots of people who rent out their apartments but I wouldn't know if they were renters or owners/family. I haven't ever heard of any aggro, nor have any complaints surfaced at the AGM. The most complaints are about noisy or dripping Aircon units.

Bee

I second that those who take their responsibilities seriously and do everything legally are not the ones you need to be concerned about as there is redress if there are problems (which the owners won't want).  Those people have to meet strict criteria, have insurance, pay high taxes and register their guests.  The ones that do it illegally, tax evading, having no insurance, lie about who is staying there to their neighbours, cannot register the guests (because they are illegally letting) etc, so clearly don't care about their community or Spanish law, are the ones you should be reporting and be concerned about.

You can raise the matter with your administrators to be included on the agenda for your next AGM.  You need 3/5 of owners, representing 3/5 of the fees, to vote in favour of forbidding new licenses on the community - hard to get.  But that doesn't deal with those illegally letting to their frequently changing "friends and family".