How to obtain a tourist rental propery licence in Andalucía

In order to rent a property to tourists, you need a licence for that property. Failure to comply can be costly. And the authorities are on the lookout for houses being let without having this licence. And most online rental sites, like booking.com, Airbnb, Tuifly, etc. will not list your villa, house or apartment without your tourist licence number.

Paul Whitelock has two properties to rent and went online to find out how to apply for this licence. Well, that’s when the problems started!

Making the application

I rang the man who had sorted out the vivienda rural licence for my wife’s rental property, Casa Rita, 10 years ago. Alfredo doesn’t do that anymore, but he gave me the number of a man who can, he said.

Oscar doesn’t do it either, but he told me it was really easy to do it yourself online.

So I went online to the appropriate website, read the information and started filling in the form which I deemed to be the correct one. I then needed a digital certificate to proceed.

With the help of Paco at Guadalinfo I applied for a digital certificate.

Well, I’m sorted, I thought. Not so.

At home, I went back online and tried to use my digital certificate. Nothing seemed to work. Why do you have to do everything online these days? What’s wrong with going to see somebody?

I asked friends who also have rental properties. One English lady said it was a doddle to do yourself. Others recommended going to a gestor, who would do it for 150€ in one case, 200€ in another. Per property! Blimey! That’s a bit steep, I thought.

I decided to ring my Gestoría where they have different experts for different things. Daniel does my tax return every year for 50€, Ana Rosa does autónomo for the same and Irene does anything to do with vehicles for 60€, eg she helped me import a vehicle from the UK and switch it to Spanish number plates and she changed the title on my wife’s recent car purchase. In no case did we have to travel all the way to Tráfico in Málaga City – she did that as part of her fee.

“Do you have anybody who deals with tourist licences?”

“Yes, Pol, Rafael.”

I went to see Rafael, told him what I wanted and asked how much he charged. 30€ per house. A bargain compared with the other two quotes.

“When can we start?”

He made me an appointment at Urbanismo in the Town Hall in Ronda to check whether my Ronda property was eligible for rentals and two days later I was sitting with Rafael, armed with my escrituras and ID, while he filled in the online forms.

One property is classed as urban and should be processed quickly. The other is rural and may take longer. Both properties will be inspected before a full licence is granted.

So, all my fretting and frustration with “online” was unnecessary. I should have simply gone to Gestoría Jiménez in the first place.

But, remember, it pays to shop around.

Factfile

Recommended holiday lets in 2022:

Casa Real, Montejaque – traditional village house, sleeps 4 adults. Available April to October.

Casa Rita, Montejaque – traditional village house with hot tub, sleeps 4 adults. Available April, May, September, October.

Villa Indiana, nr. Ronda – villa with private pool and large gardens, sleeps 4 adults and up to 2 children. Available June, July, August.

Villa Indiana, Fuente de la Higuera

Annex

In order to be granted a Tourist Licence, you need to meet the following requirements:

• All rooms must have direct ventilation to the exterior or to inside patios and a system of darkening the windows (either blinds or shutters)
• The property must be adequately furnished and equipped with the appliances, fixtures and fittings required for immediate use and according to the number of beds offered
• First aid kit available in the property
• Smoke and CO2 alarms
• All guests should be provided with tourist information about the location, leisure areas, restaurants, grocery stores, closest parking facilities, medical services, transportation, as well as maps of the city and entertainment guides.
• All guests should be provided with contact details of the owner or operator for any incidents
• All guests should have at their disposal clear information and instructions on the usage of appliances and installations, as well as internal regulations and restrictions if any 
• Availability of Claims and Complaints forms and a clearly positioned sign informing guests of their availablity 
• Cleaning service on arrival and departure of each new guest. 
• Linen, towels and household articles in proportion to the offered accommodation capacity, as well as a replacement set

Once you and your property comply with the above list and you have the required documents on hand you need to register for your Holiday Rental License by submitting the Responsible Declaration “Declaracion Responsable” in front of the Tourist Board of Andalusia.

In this document you declare that you fulfil all the requirements and will be able to prove it during the inspection when it takes place. Now the Declaration is submitted you get your provisional (if submitted in paper form) or final (if submitted online with a digital certificate) Registry number which is the same as your Tourist Licence Number and you can legally start the activity of tourist rentals. Don’t forget to include the above Tourist License number in any advertisement of your property.

This however is not all…

Once you have obtained your Tourist License you also need to register your property with the Policía Local or Guardia Civil to fulfil your obligatory requirement of passing on ID details of each guest over 16 years of age.

This can be done online once the property has been duly registered with the Police.

Furthermore, a rental contract, even in its very simple form, needs to be signed with every guest and kept on file for the period of at least one year along with their ID details.  

For houses in the countryside or in towns with less than 20.000 inhabitants, there is another license: VTAR (Vivienda de Turismo de Alojamiento Rural). It´s almost the same and the inspectors use the same checklist as mentioned above. For the VTAR license, however, there are some important differences. 

• Air-con: Air-conditioning is NOT an official requirement
• LPO: Because of the legal status of houses in the countryside in practice the License of First Occupation isn´t checked by most inspectors. However, you can expect that in time the DAFO certificate will be the standard for the VTAR licence. Unfortunately, of course, no one can predict yet if this would also apply for licenses that already have been granted. 
• Maximum 3 months: With the VTAR license you are only allowed to rent out for a maximum of 3 months (90 days) in total per year.
• Vivienda Rural sign: You are obliged to have a standard entrance sign which says Vivienda Rural, your registration number, the official name of the house and the logo of the Junta de Andalucía. 

Just as with the normal RTA license, because you aren´t a company you can´t offer extra services like serving breakfast.