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After several attempts, discrepancies, much publicity and political
confusion, the By-Law 517/2008 that will regulate Decree Law 39/2008
regarding local temporary accommodation establishments – the so called
“summer lettings” was finally published on 25th June and comes into
immediate effect.
After the confusing legislation, that made it more or less impossible to
temporarily let the dwelling house of the common citizen in a legal
manner, the new law has arrived at last.
This By-Law defines three types of local accommodation already listed and
defined by Article 3 of the Decree Law (which rules the legal regime for
the installation, exploration and functioning of tourist developments) as
follows:
a) Villa (detached villa for habitation purpose)
b) Apartment (autonomous fraction in a
building)
c) Accommodation Establishment (establishment for
accommodation which is composed of several rooms – a guest house for
example) In order to open doors to the public and start
working and providing temporary accommodation, one has to follow these
steps and requirements:
- Produce a valid habitation permit issued by the Municipality;
- Make a written request to the President of the Municipality
according to the format published in the By-Law;
- Provide proof of the lawful owner of the property;
- Provide a declaration of responsibility from a technician
regarding the electricity and gas installation;
- Provide the plans of the property as filed with the Municipality;
- Provide the “matrix” number (caderneta) as registered with the tax
department
Without any necessity to obtain declarations from other authorities and
without the requirements demanded previously which were the same as
applied to Hotels, the stamp showing receipt of the application as applied
by the applicable department in the Municipality is sufficient title to
open the doors to the public and start working.
It will be rest with the Municipality whether to actually, physically
verify or not the existence of the requirements within 60 days after the
submission of the request. If in fact the verification is executed, and
the requirements established in the By-Law are not fully satisfied, the
title must be returned to the council and the registration will then be
cancelled. If on the contrary the requirements are satisfied, then the
doors remain open to the public and accommodation is allowed.
If, on the one hand, the Municipality may exercise its right to verify
the existence of the general requirements and find them to be lacking, on
the other hand, it is the responsibility of the Autoridade de Segurança
Alimentar e Económica (ASAE) to investigate and initiate the process in
case of offence and breach of the law.
The By-Law divides establishments into two categories depending on their
accommodation capacity:
i) Less than 50 persons
ii) 50 persons or above
The difference between both situations is only regarding the obligation
in the second option to have a security project against fire hazards.
The property for letting may be externally identified with a plate which
will be supplied by the council with the Letters “AL” according to the
provisions of the By-Law, and it will be compulsory, as with other
establishments open to the general public, to have a complaints book under
the terms of Decree Law 156/2005 as amended by Decree Law 371/2007.
Lagoa, 4th July 2008
Marta Pargana Pereira
Advogada - Lawyer
C.P. 15136L
Member of The British-Portuguese Chamber of Commerce
Parque Empresarial Algarve
Lote 12 - 1B
8400-445 Lagoa (Algarve)
Portugal
www.algarvelawoffice.com
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