The Government of the Canary Islands approved this Friday, May 22, the regulation of vacation homes in the Canary Islands. The Deputy Minister of Tourism of the Government of the Canary Islands, Ricardo Fernández de la Puente Armas, assured that "after months of working together with associations, agents of the sector and public institutions, the Canary Islands finally has the regulation for the development of this activity in the Islands"
The decree includes the territorial scope in which the activity can be carried out, "expressly excluding from the scope of application of this regulation", as specified in article 3, "buildings located on tourist land that are within tourist areas or tourist urbanizations, as well as homes located in tourist urbanizations or mixed residential tourist urbanizations, according to the definitions established in Law 2/2013, of May 29, on the renovation and modernization of tourism in the Canary Islands".
It also contemplates that "when dealing with homes subject to the horizontal property regime, only those in which said activity is not expressly prohibited by the statutes of the community of owners may be marketed as vacation homes".
Another aspect included in the decree refers to the way to start the activity, through the presentation of a responsible declaration by the operator. In this way, "prior to the start of the activity of operating a vacation home", the document specifies, "the owners of the same or, where appropriate, the natural or legal persons to whom the owner has previously entrusted its operation, must formalize a responsible declaration of the start of activity, addressed to the corresponding Island Council, en which the fulfillment of the requirements and precepts developed in this regulation is stated, and that they commit to maintaining said compliance during the time in which the activity is carried out".
In addition to this responsible declaration of the start of activity, it is necessary to present one of these three documents, depending on the date on which the building license for the home was requested: the occupancy license, the certificate of habitability, or the responsible declaration of occupancy of real estate or facilities.
The decree also seeks to protect the user of these homes, specifying, in article 7, that "the advertising, offer and management of vacation homes will comply with the requirements of truthfulness, objectivity and good faith, pproviding the user with sufficient information about the characteristics of those, the conditions of use and the services included in the contracted services; all this without prejudice to the provisions of current regulations on advertising and consumer and user protection".
On the other hand, the decree regulating the rental of vacation homes in the Canary Islands details, in article 12.4, that "prior to the effective occupation of the vacation home by users, if the contract has not been made in writing previously, it will be mandatory for both parties to sign a document in which, at a minimum, the conditions extracted from the contract must be included, indicating the schedules, maximum number of people who can occupy the home and the prices to be charged for the accommodation service, including VAT. This document will be written at least in Spanish and English".
