Article in Daily Mail 13 December regarding new rules in renting out property in spain

The article in the Daily Mail stated that  thousands of Britons with holiday homes in Spain and France could be prevented from renting them out to tourists. There are to be new regulations enforced from April 2014. A local licence amoungst various other checks and certificates at cost will be required.Fines of £15,000 levied.

I have a couple of bookings next year and now not sure if I should proceed as I believe all the certificates, checks, licences etc will be costly and may not be in place in time if in fact a licence would be granted anyway.

Has anyone got a view and can advise before I contact my lawyer?

Im certainly no expert and don't know who or how this will be policed.

Please, let me see the article in Daily

Cheers!

Maria

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2523474/Brits-holiday-homes-Spain-France-banned-renting-tourists.html

This has been discussed under general chat "could impact on toursm"

Not sure how to post the link

It may be useful (or not)

From my reading of this article, nobody is saying you can't rent out a holiday home, just that you have to fulfil certain hygiene standards, allow inspections etc. I don't think any of that is going to sink the market. Having spent many holidays in rented villas over the years I have experienced the other side of the coin. Whereas I have been in many near-perfect dream houses, I have also been in several less desirable ones. These featured low standards of hygiene, sanitation etc or were not properly maintained, cleaned or equipped. Sometimes the description was also misleading or outright wrong and when we complained, the rental agency just found excuses rather than even attempting to fix anything. Anybody who thinks clamping down on individuals who try to make money out of such properties is somehow bad for the rental market as a whole is somehow missing the bigger picture. On the contrary, it is the toleration of these that is giving the whole rental market a bad name.

Excellent post amogles - agree with every word!!!     And who on earth would buy property in Spain to live off or replace a pension???   I am a landlord myself in the UK, and I have seen too many amateur buy to let so called landlords who do give the industry a terrible name with badly run property to have any sympathy at all with the band of ilegal landlords who are up in arms about a perfeclty reasonable proposal to regulate the industry and protect the holiday consumer.   If you could not afford it - you should not have bought it.  And the same goes for those hoping to make a quick buck in the UK and in the USA - sadly flooding back into the market again.  Just to add that the prices that some of these properties are let for, even in the peak season - they can't even be covering the cost of running the place without a mortgage.    Such a shame that these forums get taken over by stupid ignorant people with only self interest at heart.     

I don't think anyone was suggesting replacing their "pension income" with the income from a house in Spain but rather investing in a house in Spain rather than a "pension plan" as an opportunity to make a greater return.

With hindsight that would have been a very bad move if you needed to realise your investment after the global financial crisis and invested before it. However it might be a good time to invest in a house now if you have a good few years left before you retire - who knows - certainly not the financial advisors.

Regarding the thread - it really is a case of wait and see what the rules are and how much it would cost to get licensed - if its a small fee then most people will probably pay it - if its a large fee then many people may be forced out of the market or just allow friends and family to use the place.

Either way it could have a further negative impact on the price of properties from an owners perspective or very positive effect from a potential buyers perspective.

Michael

Diversification is the key to financial independance and future security ,having a mixture of asset classes is the long term key a Spanish property as part of a well managed portfolio will do it no harm long term ,a traditional pension with say a UK insurer is funded by the individuals own taxed income,the beauty of any buy to let is it is funded by third party income UK ,Spain or any EU designated country and if run well with a reasonable business acumen will long term wash its face.

If it is your long term intention to retire in warmer climbs and be able to return to your family with relative ease then Spain is still a vote winner you just hope that the dumb goverment realise the value of overseas visitors and property owners alike before its to late.

And my FCA regulated financial adviser agrees with this and he is bound by law to give the best advice he tells me so who am I to argue

Love Hugh

And theres the rub  :   'if run well with a reasonable business acumen'.    A lot - even most - house rentals in Spain by owners living in other countries are not  'run' at all. No license is obtained, no tax declared and adding little if anything to the Spanish economy.      And if there had been a bit of reasonable business acumen a lot would not find themselves worrying about either having to pay a bit more for inspections or give up a few holiday rentals!! You can either afford a property or you cannot.    I am not going to do down 'buy to let' - it is where my family have made most of their money, but that was before it stopped being a proper business and came to be seen as a way to a quick buck with the banks wading in with so called buy to let mortgatges which make it ever more difficult for established landlords to get a good deal business loan.  Any basic research would have shown that it is not easy to make money out of holiday lets, and that buying a house, especially abroad was going to be a bit of a punt - and should really only be a TINY bit of any pension planning, if it figures at all.   Top of my head - no more than 10%.     

As I said in my post on the same subject well done to the Spanish Govt for clamping down on these type of lets. Strange how some people call the govt names when they are protecting those who rent and obtaining taxes from those  who make a profit.

In my experience those who criticise govts that introduce legislation such as this are often the ones in the wrong

How many people who are complaining would have a different view if an accident happened whilst renting one of these lets and found that there was no recourse etc or an owner who ended up with a big bill because renters caused a problem or had an accident whilst on the renters property? Without the proper insurance, safety equipment, licence etc who would be liable? I guess the owner

You can bet your bottom dollar that insurance companies would find a way to wriggle out of paying because of the lack of correct procedures etc

Hotels and legal landlords have the correct insurances, safety equipment, procedures and licences for this reason

 Maybe this govt could also clamp down on the illegal taxi drivers, key holders etc at the same time for similar reasons

Tadd lot of sense in what you say.

Most private rental (for most read practically all) are not legal, thus even if they have insurance it will almost certainly not cover them if a tenant have an accident with is in any way the fault of the owner.

Mind you I have very doubt that the wellbeing of tenants is in the mind of the government if, and at present it is only if, they change to rental laws.

However, as I keep saying, the laws governing rentals now, if enforced, would mean practically no private rentals, and even many agency rentals, would disappear.

Why are we even debating this its again sensationalism journalism who ever believes anything in the mail anyway

Interesting to say the least, now if you don't believe sensationalism journalism in the Mail, I take it the TV news as well, along with all the other media news which is pretty much under the same category...Definitely not to be believed because it's all journalism.

The Spanish Government are seen as incompetent when it comes down to organising and running there country personally you would need to be a fool to believe that, there is one thing that they are very good at and that is administering and handing out fines and I am sure when they start handing out 15,000 euro fines for illegal letting it will soon put a stop to it I will give you one piece of advice on how to avoid getting reported and that would be to not fall out with your next door neighbour.