The period for the holiday rentals' legislation public consultation ends on Tuesday. Aptur, the holiday rentals' association, has presented some 300 submissions related to the draft text. Submissions can raise objections to articles and clauses or seek to clarify or improve them.
Aptur says that it is confident that the hundreds of submissions that have been made (not just its) will serve to rectify legislation which in no way covers the enormous expectations of a large part of the tourism sector.
Among others which have presented submissions are Pimem (small and medium-sized businesses' association), the confederation of tourist associations, the Balearic college of mercantile technicians, and websites such as HomeAway.
They have all raised objections, says Aptur, which adds that almost all the articles in the draft legislation have at least one submission made against them. "There are multiple issues that have not been resolved by the draft."
Examples of this include properties having to be ten years old in order to qualify as a holiday rental, which Aptur describes as arbitrary and disproportionate, and the requirement for communities of owners to give their approval. The association argues that this does not take into account the lack of regional autonomy to legislate in respect of law for horizontal property.
Furthermore, Aptur believes that the principle of zoning rentals (there are nine zones in all in Majorca) will be discriminatory if it is not based on objective criteria which are correctly explained. The association concludes by saying that it trusts that the parliamentary procedure will resolve these issues "and many other doubts" contained in the draft.