The Canary Islands Vacation Rental Association (ASCAV) has filed an appeal with the Supreme Court against Royal Decree 1312/2024, of December 23, which creates the procedure for the Single Registry of Leases and creates the Single Digital Window for Leases for the collection and exchange of data related to short-term accommodation rental services.
This regulation establishes the obligation that all tourist homes in Spain, as well as those rented for a short season (an apartment for students, for example) must be registered in a central registry dependent on the Ministry of Housing. The procedure will be carried out through the property registries.
The Association has assured that the registry created by the Government of Spain is contrary to Regulation 2024/1028 of the European Union, "a regulation that it supposedly implements in our country and to which it is subordinate by application of the principle of primacy of community law," it highlighted in a press release.
Ascav has assured that the Royal Decree is "contrary to the law of the European Union because, for tourist homes, it imposes a duplication of registries, an extreme expressly prohibited by the European regulation (art. 4.3 d)". Thus, it added that "tourist homes are already registered in the corresponding regional registries, so forcing them to go through a new registration again, before the property registry in this case, frontally violates the European regulation that has primacy and preference over the national one".
In addition, the Association considers that the challenged Royal Decree is "contrary to the Spanish Constitution since the Government of Spain claims powers that do not correspond to it: the autonomous communities are competent in matters of regulation and verification of tourist accommodations (art. 148.1.18ª CE)". However, the Government has created a system for property registrars (dependent on the Ministry of Justice) to "assume the competence of verifying tourist homes, violating, as has been said, exclusive competences of the Autonomous Communities".
"Given the seriousness of the situation and the irreparable damage that the Royal Decree will cause to the tourist home sector, the thousands of jobs they generate, as well as their direct economic impact throughout Spain, the Association has requested the Court to adopt the precautionary suspension of the Royal Decree, leaving it without effect, pending the judgment in this procedure," he indicated.
Likewise, the Canary Islands Vacation Rental Association ASCAV has filed a formal complaint with the European Commission for violation of community regulations by the Government of Spain since, as has been said, Royal Decree 1312/2024 is contrary to the law of the union. Once the complaint is admitted for processing, Spain could be subjected to an inspection procedure after which, if the situation is not redirected, it could even be financially sanctioned.