Housing crisis
Sections
Highlight
Sections
Highlight
The meeting room at the premises of law firm Martínez-Echevarría was too small this week to host the talk given by their legal experts with 40 years of experience on the Costa del Sol and 15 years in Malaga city. The hot topic for their presentation was the limitations introduced by Malaga city hall to curb the proliferation of tourist rental properties. Almost 100 owners of such properties and other interested parties attended the talk given by lawyer José Ayllón, who encouraged the attendees to use all legal means at their disposal to appeal a measure that he considers to be "completely illegal".
"There are very solid arguments to defend that a court should end up up upholding them and annulling the cancellation of any tourist flat", said Ayllón, who pointed out that one of these arguments is that the governing authorities cannot "change the rules of the game in the middle of the game" by going ahead with a ban on tourist flats that do not have independent access and supplies from the building in which they are located because "that would be a violation of the principle of legal certainty."
José Ayllón admitted that it is not possible to appeal against the municipal order that, since June, has included this limitation because it is only a document that serves as a guideline for council employees even though it also affects some citizens. However, he encouraged people to plead and appeal against the cancellation of tourist apartment licences that are being processed and notified by the offices of the regional ministry of tourism for the Junta following receipt of a list from Malaga council of over 1,500 tourist licences that should be cancelled for not complying with the requirements mentioned in that municipal order.
In the notifications that are being received by the owners of tourist rentals that must be cancelled for failing to comply with the municipal order, the Junta gives them a period of ten working days (excluding weekends and holidays) to present their counter-claims against this measure. Martínez-Echevarría has recommended not missing this deadline (for which a five-day extension can be requested) and for affected owners to present their arguments against the cancellation.
In response to any cases presented by owners the Junta will forward them to Malaga council, which will probably issue a report rejecting them. The regional ministry's tourism department will then notify the owners that their arguments have been rejected and that the proceedings to cancel the holiday rental of the property will go ahead, which then gives them another 10-day period to lodge an appeal with the local office for Turismo. If owners choose to follow this process through, they can ask for the cancellation of the tourist licence to be suspended. However, it is "the ministry itself, not the local representative office, that decides whether to suspend the cancellation while the appeal is being processed", according to sources from the regional government.
If this appeal is rejected, the last means of stopping this action by city hall and the Junta is the judicial one. In this case, the interested party can again request the suspension of the cancellation of the holiday rental as a precautionary measure, but this must be expressly admitted by the judge who is in charge of the processing of this lawsuit.
José Ayllón has recommended exhausting all these options to put a stop to the limitation implemented since June by Malaga city council because the council has backdated these cancellations to 22 February, which is when the Junta's decree came into force, endorsing the right of local councils to limit tourist housing by means of urban planning formulas.
However, for this lawyer, one of the main weaknesses of this municipal action lies precisely in the fact that it is based on the decree from the Junta. "The council says that the decree gives it a new power to limit tourist flats, but this is a fallacy. The decree does not state that a new power is given to municipal councils for this matter. Moreover, that would have to be done by law, not by decree," he argued.
Furthermore, this lawyer considers that the interpretation that the June instruction makes of the 2011 regulations for city planning (PGOU), equating the concept of tourist housing, which did not exist at the time, with that of hotels, guesthouses and similar shared accommodation, is not valid. "Fighting against this measure from city hall and the Junta has a lot of legal grounds", insisted this lawyer, who nevertheless admitted that we will have to be "patient" because this will not be resolved until the courts start to hand down firm rulings.
The meeting was also attended by the new president of AVVA-Pro (the Andalusian association of holiday rental professionals), Juan Cubo, who pointed out that "the [public governing] institutions are under pressure from society and are trying to take measures to show off." He continued: "Without tourist housing half of the restaurants would have to close and the taxi drivers would have to go home. The governing bodies know that they are breaking the law, so I encourage everyone to fight for their rights." His organisation has launched a free legal advice service for its members, with the aim of appealing this municipal restriction.
Publicidad
Publicidad
Publicidad
Publicidad
Esta funcionalidad es exclusiva para registrados.
Reporta un error en esta noticia
Comentar es una ventaja exclusiva para registrados
¿Ya eres registrado?
Inicia sesiónNecesitas ser suscriptor para poder votar.