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here we go again
here we go again
our local balaclava, machine toting asae police are going to be raiding unregistered holiday accommodation soon..no doubt this will help to encourage investment in those considering buying villas ..of course while they are at it they check on illegal boreholes and sewer pipes and also non draining fosses.
with a large fall in portugal gdp this is just "what the doctor ordered" to help develop the only industry in the algarve
article from the "News" as follows
Inspectors vow to clamp down on ‘parallel’ tourist accommodation
2/5/2009
Health and safety officials (ASAE) have vowed to reinforce a law that was introduced a year ago and which facilitates the now compulsory legalisation of unofficial accommodation used by tourists by clamping down on the thousands of property owners who have so far ignored the law.
Thousands of property owners and rental agencies in the Algarve have so far taken no action whatsoever in legalizing their abodes, despite the year-old law stating it is obligatory.
While tourism authorities hope that the ‘Simplex’ system – which was devised and introduced to literally make the process simpler – will encourage ‘clandestine’ accommodation owners to ‘come out’, regional ASAE director Filipe Meirinho has guaranteed that this summer its officials will make an effort to increase inspections.
“We are going to act”, he said last week, admitting that “in the beginning there was some difficulty” in the way the procedure was interpreted.
Loulé Mayor Seruca Emídio revealed that since the law was implemented the City Hall has only received some 200 applications.
Meanwhile António Pina, head of the Regional Tourism Board (ERTA), said he had calculated that over the past 12 months between 200,000 and 300,000 once-clandestine beds (otherwise called ‘parallel beds) had been legalized.
Controversy surrounding parallel beds peaked around three years ago when ASAE started fining those who rent out accommodation to tourists without official paperwork entitling them to do so.
However, once the law reinforcing the situation was implemented, business associations protested that the procedure was “almost impossible” to follow, and that bureaucracy for legalizing private accommodation, such as a villa or an apartment, was on a par with the procedure for legalising a tourist resort.
In theory, a simple requisition made to the mayor of the local City Hall is all that is required to legalise private tourist accommodation, though it appears thousands of property owners have still declined to initiate procedures.
with a large fall in portugal gdp this is just "what the doctor ordered" to help develop the only industry in the algarve
article from the "News" as follows
Inspectors vow to clamp down on ‘parallel’ tourist accommodation
2/5/2009
Health and safety officials (ASAE) have vowed to reinforce a law that was introduced a year ago and which facilitates the now compulsory legalisation of unofficial accommodation used by tourists by clamping down on the thousands of property owners who have so far ignored the law.
Thousands of property owners and rental agencies in the Algarve have so far taken no action whatsoever in legalizing their abodes, despite the year-old law stating it is obligatory.
While tourism authorities hope that the ‘Simplex’ system – which was devised and introduced to literally make the process simpler – will encourage ‘clandestine’ accommodation owners to ‘come out’, regional ASAE director Filipe Meirinho has guaranteed that this summer its officials will make an effort to increase inspections.
“We are going to act”, he said last week, admitting that “in the beginning there was some difficulty” in the way the procedure was interpreted.
Loulé Mayor Seruca Emídio revealed that since the law was implemented the City Hall has only received some 200 applications.
Meanwhile António Pina, head of the Regional Tourism Board (ERTA), said he had calculated that over the past 12 months between 200,000 and 300,000 once-clandestine beds (otherwise called ‘parallel beds) had been legalized.
Controversy surrounding parallel beds peaked around three years ago when ASAE started fining those who rent out accommodation to tourists without official paperwork entitling them to do so.
However, once the law reinforcing the situation was implemented, business associations protested that the procedure was “almost impossible” to follow, and that bureaucracy for legalizing private accommodation, such as a villa or an apartment, was on a par with the procedure for legalising a tourist resort.
In theory, a simple requisition made to the mayor of the local City Hall is all that is required to legalise private tourist accommodation, though it appears thousands of property owners have still declined to initiate procedures.
Re: here we go again
martin
i agree since the legislation came in to force and procedures were simplified i gather majority of the property owners are still ingnoring the law and hoping it will go away.but as autorities have declared I am sure it was only question of time before ASEA will really comedown and start fining property owners without license. i had mine done over a year ago and it was simple process as long as your paperwork for property was all in order. you just submitted basic paperwork to local town hall with your request to town hall president and that was it.
lets see what comes out of all this now the busy season for ASEA inspections has just started.
as they say better safe then sorry especially in these tough economic times the last thing you need is a HEAVY FINE to add to the misery of low rentals this year.
you can bet they would also be looking at ENERGY CERTIFICATES along with AL Tourist rental licenses too.and no doubt TAX AUTHORITIES will be keen too to keep an eye on rental incomes and tax payments
Bondi
i agree since the legislation came in to force and procedures were simplified i gather majority of the property owners are still ingnoring the law and hoping it will go away.but as autorities have declared I am sure it was only question of time before ASEA will really comedown and start fining property owners without license. i had mine done over a year ago and it was simple process as long as your paperwork for property was all in order. you just submitted basic paperwork to local town hall with your request to town hall president and that was it.
lets see what comes out of all this now the busy season for ASEA inspections has just started.
as they say better safe then sorry especially in these tough economic times the last thing you need is a HEAVY FINE to add to the misery of low rentals this year.
you can bet they would also be looking at ENERGY CERTIFICATES along with AL Tourist rental licenses too.and no doubt TAX AUTHORITIES will be keen too to keep an eye on rental incomes and tax payments
Bondi
Re: here we go again
Yes, the Algarve surely needs more 'investors' who look for locations where they can exist in the shadows just outside of the law. I seem to just remember a time in good ol' blighty when they attempted to instigate such nonsense as council tax, car licence tax, tv licence tax, cigarette tax, booze tax, corporation tax, death tax, life tax, tax tax (that's called vat) et freakin' cetra tax. Fortunately back in the youkay everybody resisted these futile attempts and brought down the government and/or moved to Iberia, but I can't remember which.martin wrote:our local balaclava, machine toting asae police are going to be raiding unregistered holiday accommodation soon..no doubt this will help to encourage investment in those considering buying villas ..of course while they are at it they check on illegal boreholes and sewer pipes and also non draining fosses.
with a large fall in portugal gdp this is just "what the doctor ordered" to help develop the only industry in the algarve
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Re: here we go again
as one writer on expatsportugal.com commented "everything in Portugal is illegal except where it is written you can do something, whereas in uk (for example) you can do anything except where it is written you cant do"
so change the system!! the system is tied up in laws and paperwork and fines which are enforced as and when as in the case of the tourist license law where fines were issued although no licenses had been or could be even obtained. Please remember that the Algarve economy today is based purely on tourism, created by mostly foreigners buying property here, before that time it was known by northern Portuguese as the "land beyond" or "africa without the lions" One person remarked it was paradise in hell, its paradise if all you have to do is go to restaurants, drink , sit on the beach but hell if you try and conduct business.
if you think you can change the system then I wish you well.
so change the system!! the system is tied up in laws and paperwork and fines which are enforced as and when as in the case of the tourist license law where fines were issued although no licenses had been or could be even obtained. Please remember that the Algarve economy today is based purely on tourism, created by mostly foreigners buying property here, before that time it was known by northern Portuguese as the "land beyond" or "africa without the lions" One person remarked it was paradise in hell, its paradise if all you have to do is go to restaurants, drink , sit on the beach but hell if you try and conduct business.
if you think you can change the system then I wish you well.