Registering your property as a local accommodation has numberless benefits but if you do it outside the current law, the risks are equal in number and involve enormous fines. With the new local accommodation legislation being enforced by 2018, the rules became even stricter in Portugal and that’s why we share with you some of the most important ones.
Read them carefully or, better yet, make it our problem and don’t worry about a thing.
Make sure that your property isn’t on a fully booked containment zone.
Not so much a rule to follow but rather something you should check so you don’t lose your time.
As to “preserve the social reality of neighborhoods and places”, the city councils can now impose limits on the number of local accommodations allowed in each geographic zone of the city.
In other words, according to the new law, the city council can obstruct the creation of new local accommodations in zones denominated as “containment areas”. After these are established, they will only be reevaluated on a two-year basis.
Some containment areas have already been set for Lisbon and they, to the date, encompass:
Alfama, Mouraria, Castelo, Bairro Alto, Príncipe Real, Bica, Madragoa and part of Graça.
On Oporto and the rest of the country these areas are still under evaluation.
Multi-risk insurance is mandatory
The owner of a local accommodation is now required to have a multi-risk insurance for damages made on a residential building’s common areas, becoming responsible for any damage that results from the presence of guests.
The absence of a multi-risk insurance is valid grounds for the immediate termination of a local accommodation’s registration.
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