Compiled with the help of artificial intelligence, based on Spanish-language information. Source below the article.
Property owners lodge new objections
Dozens of property owners affected by the Canary Islands’ tourist legislation have once again attended the Land Registry to file formal objections against any registration entry that would link their properties, and the corresponding parent properties of which they are co-owners under the horizontal property regime of their complexes, to compulsory tourist use or to an alleged single operating unit.
The owners are opposing these moves and demand that legal certainty, legitimate expectation and the right to property guaranteed by the Spanish Constitution be respected.
Long-standing owners caught in the crossfire
The Platform for Those Affected by the Tourist Law (PALT) explains in a statement that the controversy is particularly serious because many of these owners bought their apartments or bungalows decades ago, relying on the information provided by the Land Registry itself and on the corresponding public deeds of sale.
PALT points out that, before a sale is completed, the notary requests information from the Land Registry to verify the legal status of the property: who is registered as the owner, any existing charges, mortgages, embargoes and all other circumstances and limitations that may affect the property. “The buyer is not buying blind. They buy trusting the official information they receive and the public deed authorised by the notary,” the Platform states.
Retrospective restrictions under fire
For this reason, owners consider it especially significant that, in cases where the registry information provided for the sale did not reflect a particular tourist use restriction or compulsory link to an operating unit, that circumstance later appears when the owner presents their deed for registration. “If that limitation genuinely affected the property at the time of sale, why did it not appear in the registry information used so the buyer could learn the true legal situation of the property? And if it did not appear, on what basis can it now be incorporated into the registry history of a property acquired under different legal conditions?” asks PALT.
“You cannot change the rules after the citizen has bought,” insists the platform, adding that owners also warn of the economic consequences that incorporating a tourist use restriction into a property can bring. A property legally tied to a specific tourist use and to an operating unit does not necessarily have the same market value as a property that can be used and sold without that limitation.
Value and rights at stake
The Platform therefore considers the issue is not merely formal or administrative: it directly affects the asset value of the properties and the rights of those who acquired them in good faith based on the official information available at the time. “If a particular limitation could substantially affect the value of a property, the buyer had the right to know about it when deciding to purchase. You cannot buy a property with a certain registry reality and discover years later that a limitation which did not exist at the time of purchase is now being added,” PALT says.
Registry discrepancies reported
The owners say they have again been presented with different documentation this time from Registry No. 1 in San Bartolomé compared with what had been shown to them on a previous occasion at Registry No. 2, and which, they allege, is being linked to the receipt of their formal objections.
“We will not sign a blank cheque over our properties,” the owners declare. “We bought our properties under certain legal conditions, with rights that appeared in our title deeds and in the registry reality that existed at the time of acquisition. We do not accept that a later interpretation can transform the nature or status of our properties,” the Platform states. “We are not asking for any privilege. We are asking that the law, our title deeds, the registry information that existed when we bought, and the legitimate expectation that should protect any citizen acquiring a property in Spain, all be respected.”
The Platform announces it will continue documenting any incidents arising at the various Land Registries and will study, together with its legal advisers, the possible consequences of any action that could affect the value, content or rights of use and disposal of its members’ properties.
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