Córdoba’s neighboring communities are already taking action to stop the proliferation of tourist apartments on their properties. The two recent sentences of Supreme Court They support the right of owners to prohibit this activity in their buildings. This will provide a new panorama of a phenomenon that has grown exponentially in recent years. But steps have already been taken in this direction in the city.
The Supreme Court had already ruled before, but on the constituent title of the communities, that is to say on what we can or cannot do there. What if a community does not allow businessthere was no room for tourist apartments in the building or any other type of business. But this time, the first chamber of the Supreme Court ruled specifically on the interpretation and application of article 17.12 of the law of Horizontal propertyintroduced by Royal Decree-Law 7/2019 of March 1 on urgent measures regarding housing and rental.
The property manager and professor of legal history at the University of Cordoba, Jose Manuel Guerreroreminds ABC how the law, with the words “limit” or “condition” and a three-fifths majority, began to be consistently applied as equivalent to to forbid“until a judgment was issued by the Court of First Instance number 7 of Córdoba which created great controversy, stating that this was not enough”. mostbut unanimity was required because it affected the property regime. This sentence was ratified by the Provincial Court, “so in Cordoba they left us in a bit of an ‘in albis’ state”, he explained.
Guerrero, who is immersed in various lawsuits regarding tourist apartments, is an example in Córdoba of conflicts of all kinds that arise. First line of cases that are already occurring in the city: the community against a tourist apartment that already had a permit before, so they will not be able to do anything against this retroactively.
Another on a constitutive title which, in a community, prevented the accommodation and the pension, but in which the tourist apartment took the lead, which, since it does not require staff, is not included in these concepts.
Another case is that of an owner who did not own a tourist apartment but considered the ban in her community as an attack on her freedom and rights. rightsso he pleaded and won because there was no unanimity among the neighbors. One last event remains to come, and it would already respond to the current situation. Some neighbors in Cordoba have learned that they are going to install a tourist apartment in their building and have already requested an appointment with this administrator to see how to prevent it, which would already be linked to current penalties.
Total owners
At this stage, it must be taken into account that “not all owners participate in the meetings, therefore when sending the minutes to the others, if they do not vote against within a month, their voice “They are in favor.” In conclusion, Guerrero emphasizes that the reluctance towards tourist apartments in communities is fundamentally preventive, to avoid noise and scandals.
“The sentence brings a lot legal security and this will greatly ease the controversies that may arise in communities of owners, since with the agreement of three-fifths of the owners who in turn represent three-fifths of the contribution, it can be prohibited that housing be allocated to ” the activity is used for tourist purposes,” the president of the College of Real Estate Administrators of Córdoba, Mercedes Romero, told the newspaper.
“Before we had doubts, because there were many contradictory sentences during the provincial hearings where it was not clear whether the word limit amounted to ban, but precisely the Supreme Court said that grammatically limit This is understood as a ban,” he added.
The College has already sent a communication to the property administrators of Córdoba to update the complaints they are receiving.
For the president of the College, the importance of the judgment lies in the fact that it must become a guide for other authorities and courtsbut let us remember at the same time that the law does not have retroactive effects and therefore does not affect already existing tourist apartments, which is confirmed by article 17 of the horizontal property law.
Through his experience within the College of Real Estate Administrators, Romero has gathered a notable number of complaints because of the tourist apartments. “There are times when tourists, and we all are, behave very well, but other times there is abuse and disrespect that transfers to a discomfort on the owners, because some visitors to the city do not imagine the quiet life that should exist in a neighborhood where people sleep, eat and where children study,” he warned.
“Our impression is of tranquility because there is finally a criterion which gives us a lot of legal certainty”
The school has already started work on the rule change and there has been communication between all schools and their members. “Our impression is that tranquility “There is finally a criterion which gives us a lot of legal certainty,” he underlined. In any case, the College is waiting for the entire process to be finalized.
The decisions, adopted unanimously, resolve the controversy between provincial courts over whether the prohibition of activities described in art. 5.e) of Law 29/1994, of November 24, on urban leases, must be adopted by a three-fifths majority or by unanimity (one of them from Cordoba).
