
Neighbors banning tourist apartments in their own buildings. After the City Council has pledged to close all tourist apartments in Barcelona in five years, Justice, where yesterday the Supreme Court approved a new doctrine: that the neighbors of a building can prohibit tourist apartments on their own property.
This has been determined by this body, which has interpreted Article 17.12 of the Horizontal Property Law, introduced in the decree on urgent rental measures, set out in two recently published rulings.
How to prohibit a tourist apartment in your property?
The new doctrine allows homeowners’ associations to prohibit tourist rental activities in their buildings by means of agreements approved by a three-fifths majority. That is, three out of 5 neighbors must vote in favor of prohibiting tourist apartments in their building.
According to the Supreme Court, this new interpretation is in line with the “teleological criterion, the spirit and the purpose” of the decree, which in its preamble justifies the adoption of urgent measures due to the difficulties of access to rental housing due to the increase in rents, caused in part by “the growing phenomenon of tourist rental”.
The measure, however, is not retroactive, so it applies only to apartments that want to apply the rule from now on.
Barcelona advises interested communities
The city has already announced that it will offer an information and orientation service to the communities of owners who want to prohibit the opening of tourist apartments in their buildings. It will do so through the Col-legi d’Administradors de Finques and the Cambra de la Propietat Urbana.
Barcelona, at the head of the tourist rental in Spain
The latest figures on renting in Barcelona announce that about 40% of the housing supply, even more in some tourist areas, is destined to tourist or seasonal rentals.
A few months ago the new government voted against regulating seasonal rentals, which seem to remain active in Barcelona while tourist apartments seem to be in decline.