On Tuesday, the Balearic Parliament is due to approve a decree measure for reducing fines for illegal holiday lets by up to 80%. In order to qualify for this reduction, owners will have to make their properties available to the government so that it can rent them out for a period of five years. Prices would be in accordance with the government's guidelines for limited-price housing or social renting.
Under the decree, fines will increase to a maximum of 500,000 euros (from 400,000) for the most serious offences. Penalties will range from a warning to €5,000 for the least serious; €5,001 to €50,000 for serious; and €50,001 to €500,000 for the very serious.
The very serious category will include repeat offences, illegal lets on protected rustic land, and the renting out of properties subject to a government price-restriction regime, e.g. VPO homes.
A further feature of this decree is that town halls and island councils will be able to involve local police forces or the state security forces (Guardia Civil, National Police) in tourism inspections. For instance, if the police raid an illegal party and suspect that the property is being rented out illegally, they can forward this information to the relevant authority that is responsible for imposing sanctions.
Through agreement between the Partido Popular and Vox, parliament is also scheduled to approve a ban on the issuing of new licences for apartment holiday rentals and the validation of some 90,000 holiday rental accommodation places (beds) that had been set to disappear under measures adopted by the previous government.
The reintroduction of these 90,000 places into the accommodation pool has been harshly criticised by opposition parties, the hoteliers, the association of travel agencies and groups such as the Forum for Civil Society.
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TravelerYou are unbelievable. You're happy to admit in print that you would break the law- " If I get another home here, I'll do it because I don't want to risk my property bring taken away or trashed and not be compensated fully for it." Those who illegally rent out their properties are not only breaking the holiday rental law, they're also defrauding Hacienda because they're certainly not paying tax on their illegal earnings. In addition, they're defrauding all the the law-abiding tax payers. There are very strict security and comfort rules that legal holiday rentals have to comply with which I doubt that the illegal offer do. Perhaps the authorities should just jail offenders and be done with it. That might finally make people think twice about carrying out an illegal activity. Perhaps you should just become a drug dealer so you can make your illegal money without worrying about okupas.
Johnny CThe homeowners are criminals by illegally letting their homes? Are they more criminal than okupas who normally don't pay crap or immigrants who can't afford to even live there but get a pass because they speak Spanish or given asylum? A homeowner would rent their properties to anyone if there was a legal foundation for them to evict people out of their homes within 6 months of non-payment. But that doesn't exist so there's people who want to protect their homes, keep them up and running, while getting extra cash. But they get that from the general public as they are protected and know the law. As of right now, I as a homeowner wouldn't rent my property out to anyone national because on a legal aspect (should they become destitute) they have more legal rights than I would as homeowner. And that isn't fair. Because you're right, we do criminally rent our properties because the only market that would protect our interest is the tourist/international resident market. They have the money. They don't want to risk their visas OR they're flying back to wherever they came from. Which is why homeowners do that. And I don't blame them. If I get another home here, I'll do it because I don't want to risk my property bring taken away or trashed and not be compensated fully for it. No disrespect to those people here who are on hard times and would pay something but you know what they say, "One bad apple spoils the bunch." Just the basic"fixing the okupa situation" legally though passing bills to restrict such actions would be enough for me and homeowners like me to feel comfortable renting to the general public because we know we wouldn't be abused.
TravelerYou're raising some valid points but you're overlooking the fact that the property owners who would be affected are criminals. They are breaking law by illegally renting their properties. Why do these crooks seem to attract sympathy? They are giving the whole holiday rental industry a bad name. And no, I don't own a holiday rental property - legal or illegal, I'm just stating a fact.
The proposed decree won't do much to increase the housing stock on the rental/social housing side because it (the decree) includes a lot of cons or unknowns that could be cons for homeowners. For starters, why not a total removal of fines if a offender agrees to rent their property to the government? The Mallorcan government says that homes would be rented by them on a reduced (or social) amount, but what exactly IS that amount? Is the government going to remove renters who don't pay for a total of 90 days? Or will it be the government turns a blind eye to people living legally on paper but not paying a dime, making it civic issue? 5 years seems like a long time. Is the government going to "give back" or "rescind" partnership or partial control of a person's private property on the 5th year or would they try to argue total control to keep the property indefinitely? A lot of people would be thinking, "Right, give my home to the government so that they pay me late, don't pay me for my property, or try to steal it in court. Nope. No way!" A lot of people will be sitting on their properties empty and using Fuera Okupas and the decree will be defunct. I "see" how the government is trying to address the issue, but they need to revise the whole decree before voting on it. It is completely lopsided in favor of people who can't even pay their basic taxes over folks who can AND lopsided against private ownership. You want our homes? You gotta sweeten the pot and deal with illegal occupation AND out of control immigration of Latin Americans and Africans. Make a decree to remove illegal squatters after 90 days (or 180 for vulnerable people). Increase the social arraigo amount to 25,000 euros or require immigrants to have professional qualifications so that they CAN find decent jobs instead of working in the service sector. So that they (all the people you don't want to admit are causing the housing issue) can actually pay their rents or get help! 🙄😒