Valencian Region – Tourist Rent

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Concept

The tourist accommodation regulations unify in a single rule the regulations that, until the time of its publication, were dispersed for the different types of accommodation:

– the procedure for registration in the Tourism Register of the Valencian Community;

– the price  system applicable to companies providing services;

– the system of badges for tourist accommodation companies and establishments; and,

– For all types of accommodation, the responsible declaration of commencement of activity, modification of any of its essential characteristics, cessation of the provision of the service and change of ownership.

a) Housing for tourist:  Dwellings for tourist use are complete properties (transfer by rooms is not allowed), whatever their typology, which are transferred for a price, in conditions of immediate availability, for tourist purposes, for a period of less than or equal to 10 days, computed continuously to the same tenant, and that have a municipal report of urban compatibility for favourable tourist use, or equivalent document that is so determined by regulations, as well as, where appropriate, the municipal enabling titles required for said use or activity.

In any case, it is presumed that there are tourist purposes when any of the following circumstances occur with respect to the property, therefore applying the tourism sector regulations:

  • When it is transferred for tourist use by companies that manage homes for tourist use;
  • When it is made available to tourist users by its owners or holders for this purpose, whether or not services typical of the hotel industry are provided;
  • When tourism marketing channels are used through tour operators or any other tourist sales or promotion channel, including the Internet, or other new technology systems.

The following cannot be considered as dwellings for tourist use:

– Dwellings that are rented for a period equal to or greater than 11 days computed continuously to the same tenant;

– The tourist rental of rooms, which is expressly prohibited;

– The rental of rooms for tourist use on boats, caravans or similar, with the exception of the regulatory framework for campsites.

b) A period of validity is established for registration in the Register that allows an adaptation in a constantly evolving offer. Thus, the registration of homes for tourist use in the Tourism Registry is valid for 5 years, with the exceptions expressly regulated in the Law and the development decree.

c)Design, quality, safety and accessibility conditions are set  to provide the homes made available to tourists with a minimum of quality.

d)The sanctioning procedure is reviewed, greater precision in the types of infringements, as well as the possibility of delegating the sanctioning power.

e) Additional technical measures are established to increase the transparency and quality of the data of tourist housing, such as greater precision in the responsible declaration of initiation and in the requirements demanded, as well as measures to speed up the procedures for modification and deregistration in the Tourism Registry of the Valencian Community.

Thus, as a novelty, it is specified that the responsible declaration must contain the identification of the person or entity that owns the activity, including telephone number and email, for the purposes of notifications of availability of electronic notifications, as well as the identification of the person who owns the property, if it is different from the person or entity that owns the activity.

In addition, it must contain the identification data of the home and the express pronouncement on the following points:

– That it holds the availability of the property or homes, for its use as a tourist destination and the documentation that accredits it (deed of ownership of the property, lease contract, authorisation for management between the owner and the company, or other valid title for these purposes);

– That the dwelling or dwellings have the requirements required by the regulations for their registration in the Register with the capacity communicated, and that such requirements will be maintained during the validity of the activity;

– That it has the municipal urban compatibility report for favourable tourist use, or equivalent document provided for in this regulation;

– That the cadastral reference recorded is unique and individualized and responds to the current physical, economic and legal reality of the property or, failing that, the unique registry code of the property is provisionally recorded until the corresponding unique and individualized cadastral reference is obtained in less than a year;

– That it has a licence for the first or second occupation of the dwelling or the equivalent enabling title, as well as, where appropriate, the municipal enabling title required for its use as tourist accommodation, when in accordance with municipal planning the use of tourist housing is residential (in cases of proven impossibility, an equivalent municipal report will be admitted);

– That the conditions of design, quality, accessibility and safety are met in the tourist housing and that it has the licences, authorisations, enabling titles or other instruments of urban, environmental or municipal opening intervention mandatory for its use for tourist use, when in accordance with municipal planning the use of tourist housing is considered tertiary;

– That it has civil liability insurance or other equivalent guarantee to cover damages that may be caused in the development of the activity;

– That the property has the licences, certificates or authorisations required by other departments or public administrations, especially urban, environmental, horizontal property, health and opening regulations, if required, and that it complies with all applicable sectoral regulations;

– If the establishment is located on rustic-non urbanisable land, that the declaration of community interest has been obtained that attributes the corresponding tourist use and exploitation or, where appropriate, that its exemption has been processed in accordance with current urban planning legislation;

– Period of provision of the activity in the home: the period of provision of activity must be declared for each dwelling, being able to be marketed for tourism only in the periods indicated;

– That it complies with the legal provisions relating to fiscal, tax, social security obligations and, in the case of having dependent employees, which are governed by the applicable collective agreement, corresponding to this economic activity;

– That it has a registry certificate that certifies that neither the constitutive title or the statutes of the community of owners, or any agreement of the same, enforceable against third parties, determine the impossibility of use for purposes other than those of residence as a habitual residence, or that it has a certificate issued by the administration of the community of owners in the same sense;

– That the obligations of RD 933/2021, which establishes the obligations of documentary registration and information of natural or legal persons who carry out accommodation and rental activities of motor vehicles or regulation that replaces it, are complied with;

– In the case of holding the rural specialty, which complies with the prescriptions provided for in the Valencian D C. 10/2021 art.68;

– That it has the energy certificate of the property;

– In the case of tourist dwellings that are implemented in premises for tertiary use of existing buildings, that the descriptive technical report contained in the Valencian D C. 10/2021 art.49.3 is available.

The declaration of responsibility authorises the exercise of the activity for a period of 5 years from its presentation and this must be stated in the corresponding registration.

  • In no case can housing for rural tourist use be considered to be housing that is located in a municipality bordering the sea, so the possibility of considering as such, those that, being in one of these municipalities, are located in areas whose use is eminently agricultural, livestock or forestry, or that present an environmental interest, is eliminated.  cultural or visual in accordance with the application of other sectoral policies and that would allow the economic revitalization of the environment.

However, those located in residential areas on land with the same uses are considered to be homes for rural tourist use.

Tourist housing – “Viviendas de Uso Turístico”

Concept

The regulation applies to tourist accommodation establishments and their owners, whether natural or legal persons, to users of tourist accommodation and to the Administrations and public entities involved. In this sense, “dwellings for tourist use” are one of the integral modalities of said regulation,

It will not be considered as “dwellings for tourist use”

– Dwellings that are rented seasonally as established in the LAU; and

The promotion, construction and sale of second homes.

For these purposes, “dwellings for tourist use” are considered to  be complete properties, whatever their type, which, having the municipal urban compatibility report that allows such use, are transferred for a price, on a regular basis, under conditions of immediate availability, and for tourist, holiday or leisure purposes.

Such habituality is presumed  when any of the following circumstances occur:

– That it is transferred for tourist use by companies that manage tourist housing;

– That it is made available to users by its owners or holders, regardless of the period of time contracted and provided that services typical of the hotels industry are provided;

– When tourism marketing channels are used – tour operators or any other tourist sales channel, including the Internet or other systems of new technologies.

These homes are classified into the  superior and standard categories, depending on the degree of compliance with the requirements set out in the Valencian D C. 10/2021 annex II.

Management Companies for tourist housing

Any natural or legal persons whose professional activity, main or not, consists of the transfer for consideration of the use and enjoyment of at least five dwellings for tourist use, regardless of whether or not they are located in the same building or complex, and regardless of the title that enables them to do so. In this sense, they are required to formalise an authorisation for management with the owner and the company, expressly indicating that the responsibility for non-compliance with the obligations is demanded from the manager.

Rural tourist accommodation – Alojamiento turístico rural

Concept

Housing for tourist use is considered rural when it is not located in a municipality:

Bordering the sea, unless the use of the area is eminently agricultural, livestock or forestry, or if they are of environmental, cultural or visual interest that is in line with the application of other sectoral policies and allows the economic revitalisation of the environment;

– Included in or linked to a metropolitan area;

– With a model of occupation and use of traditional urban and non-rural territory.

Likewise, although due to the characteristics of the municipality it could be considered rural, the dwelling will not be so if it is located, within it, in a residential area.

Requirements

– The accommodation capacity does not exceed 16 places;

– That the building in which it is located has traditional, historical, cultural or ethnographic architectural value, or responds to the architectural characteristics of the area;

– That the locality where it is located is less than 5,000 inhabitants; and

– That the furniture, equipment and ornamentation respond to the native uniqueness of the area where they are located.

Procedure for starting activity

Those who intend to carry out the activity of tourist accommodation, in any of its modalities, must submit, to the territorial tourism service of the province in which the accommodation is located, a responsible declaration in which they state compliance with the requirements that are applicable to them for the intended typology, and, where appropriate,  classification, and the commitment to maintain them during the time of validity of the activity.

The content of the responsible declaration for tourist housing and tourist housing management companies must be as follows:

– That it holds the availability of the property for tourist use and the documentation that accredits it as the case may be – deed of ownership of the property, lease contract, authorisation for management between the owner and the company, or other valid title for these purposes.

– That the dwelling has the requirements required by the regulations for its classification in the category and capacity communicated, and that these requirements will be maintained during the validity of the activity,

– That it has a  favourable municipal report on urban compatibility that allows tourist use;

– That he has a license to occupy the home;

– That it has civil liability insurance or other equivalent guarantee to cover damages that may be caused in the development of the activity.

In addition to attaching, in any case, the accreditation of the physical or legal personality of the interested person or, in the case of natural persons, express authorisation signed to the Administration to collect personal data, the list of dwellings must be accompanied by a  favourable municipal report on urban compatibility.