Owners' Association and Tourist Flat: Spain's 3/5 Majority

The warning almost always arrives the same way: an item on the agenda of the next junta (the owners’ meeting), written in three lines, talking about “limiting the tourist use of the dwellings”. From there the versions multiply in the building’s chat group and no two of them agree. That unanimity is needed. That a simple majority of those attending is enough. That the resolution closes the flat next month.

Who is right is settled by two provisions of Ley 49/1960 sobre propiedad horizontal, Spain’s condominium act (the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal, LPH), and they do not say the same thing. Article 17.12 sets the majority with which the comunidad de vecinos (the owners’ association) may resolve on the activity, in either direction: approve it, limit it, condition it or prohibit it. Article 7, paragraph 3, imposes a prior authorisation on whoever wants to start. Treating them as if they were the same is the mistake that changes the answer depending on whether your tourist flat was already running or not yet, and knowing which one applies is what lets a legal tourist flat and its owners’ association coexist without going to court.

What article 17.12 of the LPH lets the junta decide

Paragraph 12 of article seventeen is the majority rule. Its wording in force is this:

“The express resolution approving, limiting, conditioning or prohibiting the exercise of the activity referred to in letter e) of article 5 of Ley 29/1994, of 24 November, on Urban Leases, in the terms established by sectoral tourism legislation, whether or not it entails an amendment of the founding deed or of the bylaws, shall require the favourable vote of three fifths of all the owners who, in turn, represent three fifths of the ownership shares. Likewise, this same majority shall be required for the resolution establishing special expense quotas or an increase in the share of common expenses borne by the dwelling where that activity is carried on, provided that these modifications do not entail an increase of more than 20%. These resolutions shall not have retroactive effect.”

Four distinct decisions come out of that paragraph, all with the same reinforced majority:

• Approve the activity in a specific dwelling, which is the authorisation article 7 requires.
• Limit the activity, for example with a maximum number of tourist dwellings in the building.
• Condition the activity, with access hours, use of common areas or a deposit against damage.
• Prohibit the activity for the future.

The activity the provision refers to is not any short let. It is the one in letter e) of article 5 of the Ley de Arrendamientos Urbanos (LAU, the urban leases act): the temporary transfer of use of the whole of a furnished and equipped dwelling, marketed or promoted for profit, when it is subject to a specific regime derived from its sectoral tourism legislation². What decides the exclusion is that the whole is not transferred: letting individual rooms falls outside that definition and, with it, outside paragraph 12, whether or not the owner lives in the dwelling. That does not put the room beyond the junta’s reach, because paragraph 2 of article seven on nuisance activities and whatever the bylaws prohibit both remain standing, and several autonomous communities regulate room-by-room tourist accommodation on their own account.

What changed in article 17.12 on 3 April 2025

The three-fifths majority was not born in 2025. Paragraph 12 was introduced into article seventeen by Real Decreto-ley 7/2019, of 1 March, already with the double majority, the 20% cap on special quotas and the sentence on non-retroactivity³. What Ley Orgánica 1/2025, of 2 January, did was rewrite that paragraph and add paragraph 3 to article seven, both of them in its disposición final cuarta (fourth final provision)⁴. The two changes take effect from 3 April 2025, three months after the law was published⁵.

Put another way: the reform did not give associations a new power to limit, which they had held since 2019. What it did was write “prohibit” into the law and, above all, invert the starting point for new activities.

Article 7.3 and article 17.12: two rules that do not overlap

Paragraph 3 of article seven is not a majority rule, it is a prior requirement addressed to the owner:

“The owner of each dwelling who wishes to carry on the activity referred to in letter e) of article 5 of Ley 29/1994, of 24 November, on Urban Leases, in the terms established by sectoral tourism legislation, must first obtain the express approval of the comunidad de propietarios, in the terms established in paragraph 12 of article seventeen of this Law.”

The practical difference lies in who has to move, and when.

That asymmetry is what explains the two scenarios people confuse. If your flat was already running before 3 April 2025, the association has to muster 3/5 and pass a resolution in order to change anything. If you want to start now, you are the one who needs the resolution, and without it there is no activity to begin, with the association having to call nothing.

The Tribunal Supremo backed a 3/5 ban before the reform

Before the law wrote “prohibit”, the doubt was whether “limit” stretched that far. The full Civil Chamber of the Tribunal Supremo (Spain’s Supreme Court) settled it in judgment 1232/2024, of 3 October, handed down in cassation appeal 8972/2022:

“the statutory expression ‘limit or condition’ establishes two distinct and alternative cases, one of lesser intensity (the conditioning) and another of greater reach (the limitation), and within the latter nothing prevents the limitation from going as far as prohibiting the activity.”

The chamber’s reasoning adds an argument that is still useful for reading the current provision: paragraph 12 exists precisely as an exception to the unanimity rule, and subjecting a prohibition to unanimity “would be tantamount to making it impossible, since the vote against of the owner of the flat where the activity is intended to be carried on would suffice to prevent it”.

The judgment matters above all for resolutions passed before 3 April 2025, which are judged under the earlier wording. For later ones, the word is already in the law and the argument has moved elsewhere: to whom they reach.

How the 3/5 are counted and how absent owners count

The majority is a double one and is measured against the total, not against those attending: three fifths of all owners and three fifths of the cuotas de participación (the ownership shares). In a building with 20 owners you need 12 votes in favour adding up to at least 60% of the coefficient. With 12 neighbours in favour but 55% of the shares, the resolution fails.

The fact that decides most juntas is not who votes, but who does not turn up. Paragraph 8 of that same article seventeen says:

“the votes of those owners absent from the Junta, duly summoned, shall be counted as favourable where, once informed of the resolution adopted by those present in accordance with the procedure established in article 9, they do not express their disagreement by communication to the person performing the functions of secretary of the community within 30 calendar days, by any means providing a record of receipt.”

That paragraph opens with two carve-outs, resolutions whose cost cannot be charged to whoever voted against, and works for private benefit, and paragraph 12 is in neither of them. Our reading, therefore, is that the absent owner’s silence counts in favour here too, and that a resolution falling short at the junta can reach the 3/5 thirty days after the resolution is notified to the absent owners, not thirty days after the meeting. If your flat is the one affected and you cannot attend, written disagreement within that period is the only thing that stops your silence from being added to the resolution.

Does the resolution reach a tourist flat already operating?

It is the question that matters to anyone already invoicing, and the law answers it twice, with two different mechanisms.

The non-retroactivity paragraph 12 has carried since 2019

The last sentence of paragraph 12 is “these resolutions shall not have retroactive effect”, and it has been in the text since its original 2019 wording, untouched by the reform. It refers to every resolution in the paragraph, not only to prohibitions: also to limitations, to conditions and to special quotas. A resolution passed today governs what comes afterwards; it does not erase the activity that was already being carried on.

Disposición adicional segunda: existing flats are protected

Ley Orgánica 1/2025 did not stop there. Its disposición final cuarta added to the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal a disposición adicional segunda (second additional provision) devoted to exactly this case:

“An owner of a dwelling who is carrying on the activity referred to in letter e) of article 5 of Ley 29/1994, of 24 November, on Urban Leases, before the entry into force of the Organic Law on measures concerning the efficiency of the Public Justice Service, and who has previously availed themselves of sectoral tourism legislation, may continue to carry on the activity under the conditions and time limits established therein.”

There are two cumulative requirements and a warning hidden in the last line. The requirements: to be carrying on the activity before 3 April 2025, and to have previously availed yourself of the tourism legislation, that is, to be registered in your autonomous community’s register. The warning: you may continue “under the conditions and time limits established therein”, those of that sectoral legislation. If your regional authorisation has an expiry date, the protection expires with it, because what the provision preserves is the tourism regime you already held, not an open-ended right. The clearest case is that of the Catalan HUT licences in the strained municipalities, which carry an expiry of their own.

What the law never defines: carrying on the activity

Neither of the two texts defines what “carrying on” means. Our reading is that the protection requires both things at once and on that date, a registration in force and real activity, and that a registration obtained after 3 April 2025, or a dwelling registered but never marketed, falls outside it. Litigation over a season of inactivity, or over a later change of ownership, is settled case by case.

What the 3/5 majority does not let the association do

Paragraph 12 is a closed list, and several of the things announced at juntas do not fit inside it:

• Raise the quota by more than 20%. The junta may set special expense quotas or increase the tourist dwelling’s share of common expenses, but only “provided that these modifications do not entail an increase of more than 20%”.
• Apply the quota increase to accounting years already closed. Non-retroactivity covers the quota exactly as it covers the prohibition.
• Take your licence away. The tourism authorisation is granted and revoked by your autonomous community, not by the comunidad de propietarios.
• Ban you from residential letting. Paragraph 12 only reaches the activity in letter e) of article 5 of the LAU. A letting of a habitual residence, or a seasonal letting subject to the LAU, is outside its scope.
• Close your flat on its own authority. Neither the president nor the administrator can enforce anything: the route is the formal demand and, after that, the court.

How to ask the junta to approve your tourist activity

If you are going to start, the express approval is yours to obtain, and the law gives you a way to force the vote without depending on the president’s goodwill. Article sixteen governs the calling of meetings⁸:

1. Write to the president specifying the matter you are asking to have dealt with. The provision obliges them to put it on the agenda of the next junta held.
2. If no junta is in sight, force an extraordinary one. It can be requested by a quarter of the owners, or by a number of them representing at least 25% of the shares.
3. Check first whether an earlier resolution already exists. A limitation or prohibition resolution passed at the time and recorded in the minute book remains in force without needing to be repeated.
4. Ask the secretary for a certificate of the resolution. It is the document that later proves the approval, both before a court and in any administrative procedure that requires it.
5. Confirm what paperwork your regional register asks for. The association’s resolution and the tourism authorisation are separate procedures, and each regional register publishes its own list of documents. The guide to tourist licences by region locates the register and the rule for each territory.

The junta’s silence does not amount to approval. The law requires an express resolution, so a request left unanswered leaves the activity unauthorised.

Deadlines to challenge a resolution: three months or a year

If the resolution has already been passed and you believe it should not have been, article eighteen sets out the grounds, who may challenge it and the deadlines⁹:

• Grounds: being contrary to the law or to the bylaws, being seriously harmful to the interests of the association for the benefit of one owner, or causing serious detriment to an owner who has no legal obligation to bear it, or having been passed with abuse of right.
• Who may: the owners who recorded their dissenting vote at the junta, those absent for any reason and those improperly deprived of their right to vote, provided they are up to date with payments or deposit the debt with the court.
• Deadline: three months from the passing of the resolution; one year where the acts are contrary to the law or to the bylaws. For absent owners, the period runs from notification of the resolution.
• Effect: challenging does not suspend enforcement of the resolution, unless the judge orders it as an interim measure at the claimant’s request.

The difference between three months and a year weighs a great deal, and our reading is that a resolution passed without the double majority is contrary to the law and falls within the long period. It is a reading, not a certainty: if the resolution is challenged, whether a defect in the majority fits the ground of illegality is argued case by case, so acting within the three months is the prudent course.

What happens if you operate without the association’s approval

The second paragraph of paragraph 3 of article seven gives the first move to the president, on their own initiative or at the request of any owner or occupant: to demand the immediate cessation of an activity that has not been expressly approved, with the warning that legal action will follow⁵. And it refers back to paragraph 2 of the same article, which is the cessation action.

Once the claim is filed with the formal demand on record and the certificate of the junta’s resolution, the judge may order immediate cessation as an interim measure, with the warning that disobedience is a criminal offence. If the judgment upholds the claim, it may order three further things: definitive cessation with compensation for damages, deprivation of the right to use the dwelling for a period of no more than three years, and, where the person operating the flat is not the owner, the extinction of their rights over the dwelling and their immediate eviction.

It is a civil route and it runs in parallel with the administrative one. The association can act under the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal even if the tourism inspectorate has opened no file, and the other way round.

The parte de viajeros does not depend on the junta

The association’s approval is civil law between neighbours. The licence is regional. And there is a third obligation that appears in neither of the two: recording and reporting each guest’s data, the parte de viajeros (the guest report), which Real Decreto 933/2021, Spain’s guest-registration decree, imposes on lodging activities “throughout the national territory”, with an enforcement regime that is not its own but that of Ley Orgánica 4/2015¹⁰.

Anyone who has just mustered the 3/5 at their junta has that step outstanding and often does not know it, because nobody mentions it at the meeting. The full framework is in the guide to RD 933/2021, the amounts in penalties for not submitting the guest report, and the order in which the three procedures fit together in licence, registration and parte de viajeros.

Frequently asked questions

Can the owners’ association ban my tourist flat if I already have a licence? The owners’ association cannot ban your tourist flat if you already had a licence and activity before 3 April 2025. Article 17.12 ends by saying that these resolutions shall not have retroactive effect, and the disposición adicional segunda of the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal lets anyone already carrying on the activity under sectoral tourism legislation continue to do so, under the conditions and time limits of that legislation. If the regional authorisation expires, the protection expires with it; and if the registration was obtained after that date, the resolution does reach you.

How many neighbours are needed to approve or ban a tourist flat? To approve, limit or prohibit a tourist flat in the owners’ association you need three fifths of all owners who in turn represent three fifths of the ownership shares. These are two simultaneous majorities over the whole building, not over those attending the junta: in an association of 20 owners, 12 votes in favour adding up to at least 60% of the coefficient. If either of the two fails, there is no valid resolution.

Does the vote of neighbours who do not attend the junta count? The vote of neighbours who do not attend the junta counts as favourable if they were duly summoned and do not communicate their disagreement to the secretary within the 30 calendar days after being informed of the resolution, under paragraph 8 of article seventeen. That paragraph excludes only resolutions whose cost cannot be charged on and works for private benefit, and paragraph 12 is neither of the two, so our reading is that the presumption operates in these resolutions as well. If you are the owner affected and cannot attend, written disagreement within the deadline is what stops your silence from being added in.

What happens if I ask for approval and the junta does not reply? If you ask for approval and the junta does not reply, the activity remains unauthorised: article seven requires express approval, and silence does not replace it. What you can do is force the item to a vote, by writing to the president, who is obliged to put it on the agenda of the next junta, or by promoting an extraordinary junta with a quarter of the owners or 25% of the shares.

Does the association’s approval replace the tourist licence? The association’s approval does not replace the tourist licence: they are two permissions of a different nature and you need both. The junta’s resolution is civil law between owners and only says whether the activity may be carried on in that building. The tourism authorisation is granted by your autonomous community and is what gives you the registration number the platforms require. A favourable resolution without regional registration is still activity without a licence.

Can the association raise my quota for having a tourist flat? The association can raise your quota for having a tourist flat, with the same three-fifths majority and with a cap: it may set special expense quotas or increase that dwelling’s share of common expenses, provided the increase does not exceed 20%. A resolution going beyond that percentage exceeds what paragraph 12 authorises, and non-retroactivity applies just as it does to prohibitions, so it cannot be claimed over accounting years already closed.

This article is for informational purposes and does not replace professional legal advice. The validity of a particular junta resolution and its reach over a given dwelling depend on the content of the minutes, on the association’s bylaws and on the tourism legislation applicable in each territory.