In February 2016 Andalusia passed its own decree that imposed massive change on the holiday rental business. The decree was triggered by powerful hotel chains complaining about unfair competition.  The change to anyone renting a property/properties is significant and more importantly, it is imposed with fines ranging between €1,500 to €150,000.

One of the items in the decree is that landlords must provide Air Conditioning in the bedroomed and lounge/salon areas.  If found renting without aircon there are significant fines in the scale mentioned above.  Here are the snipets regarding air cooling and heating. (Credit to Raymundo Larrain Nesbitt – full and very useful article HERE)

• Air conditioning unit affixed in every bedroom including living room (as a fixed fixture, NOT as a portable device unit) when the property is offered between the months of May and September (inclusive). Landlords will be given one year to adapt the rooms to this requirement as from the time this law is passed (11th of May 2017).
• When properties are let during the winter season (October through to April, inclusive) a heater must be made available in every bedroom including living room (as a fixed fixture, not as a portable device). Landlords will be given one year to adapt the rooms to this requirement as from the time this law is passed (11th of May 2017).
• Aircon cannot be charged for separately as all nightly fees must be inclusive of all you offer.

Think you can get away with it? 

THINK AGAIN!   The Spanish authorities are using sophisticated web trawling software to match web advertising with records. Between that and local intelligence they will catch you.  These are not rules or guidelines, they are LAW.

So what happens if you do not comply?  

a.- Light offence. Can be either a written warning or a sanction with fines up to €2,000.
b.- Serious offence. Sanctioned with fines ranging from €2,001 up to €18,000. The premises may be shut down temporarily at the authority’s discretion (for periods less than 6 months), the rental licence may be revoked temporarily.
c.- Very serious offence. Sanctioned with fines ranging from €18,001 up to €150,000. The premises may be shut down temporarily at the authority’s discretion (for periods spanning between 6 months to 3 years), the rental licence may be revoked indefinitely.

If the landlord is sanctioned two or more times for very serious offences within a three-year period, the property will be struck off the ATR indefinitely.

Statutory Limitation of Sanctions

• Light offences: six months.
• Serious offences: one year.
• Very serious offences: two years.

The statutory limitation starts as from the time the sanction is imposed by the Administration. The time can be interrupted by the initiation of legal proceedings. If the administrative procedure is paralyzed for more than one month for reasons unrelated to the offender, the statutory limitation will be renewed once again (eventually time-barring the sanction).

Clandestine Activity

If the Authorities catch you red-handed renting out a non-declared property (that is not registered at the ATR) this will be regarded as a serious offence attracting fines ranging from £1,500 up to £14,000.

Here at airconchoices.com we cannot help you with the long list of requirements but we CAN help you with the Air Conditioning and Heating segments.  We offer special discounts for Landlords who have been pushed in to this situation so give us a call or drop us an email; info@airconchoices.com.