Published in Lancelot Nº 67, Spring 1998

A law known as Regulating tourism in the Canary Islands was approved in 1995. The regulations which were due to become law in July 1997 were introduced with the following objectives in mind:

1. To regulate and promote touristic activities from the perspective of both the business community and the apartment complexes.

2. to regulate supply and demand in the tourist industry.

3. To conserve, protect and utilise the tourist resources of the Canary Islands in a rational and reasonable manner paying particular attention to the environment, the countryside and the cultural identity of the Canaries.

4. Regulation of regional and urban infrastructure.

5. To guarantee the legal protection of tourists. This refers to their basic rights, i.e.; to receive correct information(i.e. trades descriptions etc.); to be given adequate security and to have the possibility of registering a complaint if dissatisfied.

The law regulates the types of tourist establishments, their obligations to tourists, the basic standards to be adhered to and one aspect in particular which has aroused a lot of controversy:

UNITY OF MANAGEMENT. This regulation was introduced in order to ensure that alll rentals of apartments in complexes are run by one sole company or by a single individual who represents all the owners in a complex who wish to let their apartments.

The situation at present is that many non resident owners who only use their property once or twice a year entrust it to a Spanish company to let out and/or manage for the remainder of the year. This company collects a commission for each letting and owners receive a return on their property. But problems arise, according to the Canarian Government, when owners give their properties to various agents, as this affects the standard of service tourists receive when using the complex. They experience problems in the public areas, with the reception staff and among employees of the various letting firms etc.

For this reason the Canarian Government has decided that letting and management in such complexes should be run by one sole agency or agent. They would like owners to reach agreement on one individual company to let and/or manage the complex on alltheir behalves so that when complaints arise they can deal with this one company and not, as at present, be forced to deal with several.

The Unity of Management regulation obliges agents to obtain a legal contract from the owner of record, valid for a minimum of three years, allowing them to let their properties. Contracts can be drawn up in either a private or public document but the signatures must be authenticated by a notary. This contract is compulsory and must be produced before permission will be granted by the authorities to let the property. Although the government gave owners two years from 1995 to comply with this regulation they have now added a further year of grace before it becomes law due to complaints from the tourism business sector. Some believe that this law, now due to enter the statute book in July 1998, is unconstitutional and may challenge it in the courts.