Barbeques

Hi.  I am new to the site and own an apartment on the Costa del Sol where we hope to spend much of our pending retirement.

As we love to barbeque and have been told that bbqs are not allowed on balconies, can anyone tell me if there is a law re the use of gas bbqs on beaches and carparks.  I am aware that barbeques are only lit on the beach on San Juan but what is the rule re gas bbqs?

We have never had a list of rules and regulations from our community and it appears that people only know they have made an error after the event.  I wondered if we could use an electric hotplate as an alternative, keeping fatty smoking food to a minimum.

Can anyone help. 

 As long as thier are not too many people nearby on the beach you should have no problem. No idea of the actual regulations though, but I've never heard of much problem. Just a question of being considerate to others I would guess.

Thanks for that but sometimes rules in Spain seem daft to us Brits and before you know it, you are denounced.  Really would like to know where we stand legally if anyone knows.

 YOU CANNOT USE A CARBON BBQ ON THE BALCONY BUT YOU CAN USE A GAS ONE AFTER ALL IT NO DIFFERENT TO A GAS COOKER .NO IDEA ABOUT BEACH BUT HAVE NEVER SEEN ONE OTHER THAN PROFESIONAL THERE BETTER TO ERR ON THE SAFE SIDE

HAPPY POST RETIREMENT MUNCHING

Best thing is to check with your community to see if BBQ's are allowed.

We only allow Gas or Electric BBQ's in our Urb.

Technoape, Is that on balconies?  Ours is an apartment block.

Frankly I´m disgusted that you would consider using anything but charcoal to BBQ ;) My experience is this - BBQ´s on the beach are absolutely fine; do expect uninvited dinner guests but from a safety point of view, you should have enough sand and water at hand to avoid  setting the pueblo on fire.

See what your neighbours do. We rented an apartment for 2 years in Madrid where rules included "no hanging washing on balconies", "No BBQ´s", "No satellite dishes" etc  - we stuck to the rules for at least 10 minutes and then we realised everyone was barbequing their wet clothes on a satellite dish.

If all of the above don´t look useful, consider barbequing in your kitchen. I´m not aware of any law that prevents a man cooking in his kitchen.

I have a tremendous amount of sympathy with your plight. We have a park nearby with a beautiful stream running through it. The local council, at some cost, constructed 6 BBQ´s with beautiful stone benches, iron grills, really everything you could need - this year they all have "POLICE" tape wrapped around them, and a sign "DO NOT USE - FIRE HAZARD".

Best of luck!

Thanks for that.  We have actually used it twice and then some friends told us there was a no BBQ rule and to get round it, they are considering a 2 burner gas stove to use in the same way.  We have a mutual friend in the same building who is the mother of the president and she had told them in a past conversation that bbqs are not allowed " no bbq, no bbq".  That is all they could get.  She is a nice lady and helpful, but lives in close proximity and is the eyes and ears of the place.  There are only 2 floors above us in a high building and noone can see us unless there is smoke so I think we will take a chance.  There is a lid to it anyway.  Asking the president could be rocking the boat so perhaps we should be sensible when using it, don't cook food which will cause smoke and take care that there is no fire risk.

I do feel that the rules go back to caveman times and many residents in our community have been there for 20 years.  They don't like change and don't see why we want sat tv etc.  However, we chose to live there and should abide by the rules or do something to try to change them.  The latter as you know would be impossible when only spending a few weeks a year in residence.

Thanks again Orinoco.

PS.  I agree charcoal is the best but the smoke could cause a problem.

'See what your neighbours do. We rented an apartment for 2 years in Madrid where rules included "no hanging washing on balconies", "No BBQ´s", "No satellite dishes" etc - we stuck to the rules for at least 10 minutes and then we realised everyone was barbequing their wet clothes on a satellite dish'

Love that Orinoco lol

Don't really have help for you but I would be inclined to keep on doing it until someone with authority tells you not to (then play dumb & apologise)

With communities it all depends on rules and how enforced etc - so do as others do.

I thought BBQ was allowed on beach only in designated area and that you needed to apply for some licence to use designated area and pay deposit - here I talk about El Castillo in Fuengirola. Again I don't know how it is enforced and it may very much depend whether it is a patrolled beach etc. I think the problem is people generally don't clean up after themselves and tip their coals and ask into the sand - the same as people with dogs on beaches!!

I am always so disappointed when I visit natural beaches (and these tend not to be regularly cleaned) how much refuse is left behind. It's not such a problem on main beaches because these beaches are cleaned with tractors on a daily basis.

having lived in 6 ground floor or second floor apartments.

2 have allowed charcoal bbqs

2 have allowed gas only

one allowed nothing

and the other allowed gas lower down and charcoal if you had top floor.

i never used a gas bbq and been to many friends houses in rented apartments and had charcoal bbqs there with no complaints that i know of.

Burger2 "Technoape, Is that on balconies? Ours is an apartment block."

Yes!

The only reason we said no the charcoal is because:

a)  of the fumes of burning charcoal and fire lighting fluid spoiling peoples washing - not to mention getting right up your nose!

b) They are a fire hazard, as the burning embers can fly all over the place, especially when it's windy.

At least with Gas and Electric BBQ's you only have the smell of sausages, burgers, pinchos, albondigas, onions served with lashings of ice cold beer!

that's it... gotta have a BBQ right now!!!

I am pretty sure that bbqs are NOT allowed on the beach during normal bathing times during the summer season.  I think it is ok after official bathing hours, that is, when the lifeguards have left the beach.

As to bbqs on terraces, I think this is more of a community issue and each community will have its own rules.

But as with most communities, every owners believes they have their own set of rules that apply to them only and so you can basically do whatever you want .

Techno...I'm on my way to your house right now for those burgers....I can smell them from here!

Justin