Much controversy arose following the publication of Royal Decree-Law 21/2018, dated December 14, on urgent measures regarding housing and rental, which introduced a new paragraph 12 in Article 17 of Law 49/1960 on Horizontal Property, allowing homeowners’ associations to limit or condition tourist rentals.
As a result of this new provision, disputes began to emerge within homeowners’ associations. The first client approached this law firm at the end of 2019 after the association had prohibited, not merely limited—as stated in RD 21/2018—the use of their property for tourist rentals.
Faced with this scenario, we turned to the courts to clarify the interpretation of the mentioned article. In June 2020, Judgment 89/2020 from the Court of First Instance No. 3 of Fuengirola was issued, which upheld the legal argument presented by our firm. The ruling determined that “to limit” means to impose restrictions on the exercise of a right, and “to condition” means to set requirements for its exercise.
Therefore, as the legislator deliberately chose not to include an express prohibition in Article 17.12 of the Horizontal Property Law (LPH), the claim was upheld. The court concluded that tourist rentals cannot be prohibited under this article, and that such a prohibition must instead be pursued through Article 7.2 of the same legal text.
