Homeowners take urbanisation to court over holiday rental decision

Following new regulations introduced at the beginning of 2024, a community of homeowners can prohibit tourist apartment rentals. Now, legal action is being taken against the administrators of an urbanisation for making that exact decision.

Property owners on the El Vicario urbanisation in the hills above Marbella, allege that the decision not to allow short term rentals was taken “unilaterally” by the president of the community.

A ban on all tourist rentals

At an extraordinary residents’ meeting, a debate was planned on increasing the fees for residents who allowed their homes to be rented as tourist accommodation. However, according to Malaga Hoy, the administrator of the community claims that, “he received a letter with a judgement of the Supreme Court that prohibits the exploitation of properties of a community for tourism purposes when the statutes of the community prohibit commercial activities”. The community administrators therefore proceeded to ban holiday rentals on the urbanisation.

“A commercial activity”

The Association of Administrators point out that the Supreme Court considers that the activity of holiday rentals or rental of tourist dwellings constitutes a commercial activity and therefore it supports the prohibition of holiday rentals in communities whose statutes include clauses that prevent economic, business and commercial activities in dwellings.

It will now be up to the courts to decide whether the owners can continue with holiday rentals or whether the community acted in accordance with the law.