Portugal villa owners woes
The Algarve Resident recently highlighted the issue of new government regulation in Portugal. Owners of holiday villas in the Algarve have been told to register with local tourism authorities apparently to allow regulation of standards. New rules state that owners who want to let their villas to holiday makers must ensure that they have a similar standard of safety and amenities to hotels: corridors must have illuminated safety signs, there must fire doors throughout etc etc etc.
Owners are expected to get an architect to draw up plans of their houses for submission but those that have done so report that unforeseen problems crop up: some reports say that villas that do not have offices or reception areas (so that the tourists can be professionally welcomed!) are being failed.
Apart from the fact that most of the holiday villas in the Algarve are not intended to be hotels but second homes for their owners, there is a practical problem in that most of the local tourist authorities do not have manpower necessary to issue the permits required, and so some reports have it now that any house for which an application has been made and which then cannot be inspected should be considered to have passed inspection. Or something.
One thing is for sure: there is a great deal of confusion among owners and property managers as to what the regulations are and what is expected of them. Rumours abound. For examplesome years ago, a resident reported another resident (with
whom he was in conflict) for letting his house to tourists, even though
the house was not registered with the tax authorities. When the case
came to court it was thrown out by the judge, who said it would be impossible to register a villa used for holiday lettings because
there is no registration category for holiday villas per se. MPs and ministers have been lobbied but to no avail.
Any sensible person welcomes any regulation that will ensure the safety of holiday makers, but the level of confusion surrounding this is leaving owners and managers exposed and seems certain to cause damage: anything that makes the letting of holiday acccommodation more difficult is likely to have a neg: ative impact on tourism on which the Algarve relies. It may seem blase to say that there was not a problem originally, but the new season will start with many houses not actually having been registered, although frequently their owners have tried.