If there is a flat in your building that is rented out by the day without a tourist licence, you have several ways to report it, and they are not mutually exclusive: the town hall, your autonomous community’s tourism inspectorate, the owners’ association itself and the platform where it is advertised. Here we explain each one calmly, what evidence is worth gathering and what can happen to someone operating without registration.
First, a clarification: “illegal” can mean two different things, and it is worth keeping them separate because they are reported in different places.
What “illegal tourist flat” exactly means
An accommodation can be in breach on two levels that have nothing to do with each other:
- It has no tourist licence. It operates without being entered in the tourism register of its autonomous community. That is a breach of the regional tourism law, and the power to penalise it lies with the autonomous community (and, in its urban-planning aspect, with the town hall).
- It does not submit guest reports. Even if it has a licence, it may not be sending its guests’ data to SES.HOSPEDAJES as required by Royal Decree 933/2021. That falls to the Ministry of the Interior, and we cover it in the RD 933/2021 penalties.
As a neighbour, what you normally notice is the first: a constant stream of people with suitcases, key boxes in the entrance hall, noise, a listing on Airbnb or Booking. The missing guest reports cannot be seen from the landing. That is why most neighbour complaints are channelled through the tourism and urban-planning route, not through the guest-report one.
The four ways to report it
You do not have to choose only one. The usual and most effective approach is to combine them.
1. The town hall (urban planning and activity licence)
The town hall has authority over urban-planning matters: whether tourist use is permitted in that building, whether there is an activity licence when one is required, and whether the area is saturated or has the activity restricted. Many councils in cities under tourist pressure have a unit or a specific channel for reporting irregular tourist dwellings.
The exact procedure (general application, urban-planning complaint form, electronic register) varies a great deal from one municipality to another, so it is worth confirming it on the website of your town hall or at its information office. Do not invent a form name: look it up on the municipal electronic office.
2. Your autonomous community’s tourism inspectorate
The tourist licence is a regional matter. Each autonomous community has its own register and its own tourism inspection service, which is the body that can check whether the dwelling is registered and, if it is not, open a penalty procedure.
Almost all autonomous communities have a channel for tourism-related complaints or claims (in the competent department or on the regional tourism website). Again, the exact name of the procedure and the body changes depending on the territory, so confirm it on your community’s tourism website. If you do not know which register applies to that dwelling or which rules apply, our guide to tourist licences by autonomous community points you to the register and the law for each region.
3. The owners’ association and the Horizontal Property Law
If the flat is in a building under a horizontal-property regime, the owners’ association has its own tools, separate from the public administration.
Since the reform of the Ley de Propiedad Horizontal (Horizontal Property Law, LPH), brought in by Ley Orgánica 1/2025 (in force from 3 April 2025), a new dwelling for tourist use needs the favourable agreement of 3/5 of the owners in the building. If that activity began without the required agreement, or contravenes the association’s statutes, the general meeting can act.
In practice, this comes down to three usual steps:
- Bring the matter to the owners’ general meeting and have it recorded in the minutes.
- Formally require the owner to cease the activity (a burofax, a certified legal notice, or a reliable demand from the chair or the administrator leaves proof).
- If it continues, take it to the civil courts through the association. This is where advice from a lawyer and from the property administrator comes in; it is not something resolved by an administrative complaint alone.
This route is independent of the tourism one: an association can act under the LPH even if the administration has not yet imposed a penalty.
4. The platform where it is advertised
Airbnb, Booking and the rest require a valid registration number to publish a listing, and they remove those that do not comply. They all have a channel for reporting listings. If the flat appears without a registration number, with a number that does not match, or hides it, you can report it to the platform.
It is the quickest way to make the listing disappear, but also the most limited: the platform can withdraw the listing, not penalise. For there to be administrative consequences, you still need the town hall or the regional inspectorate.
Summary: what each route reports
| Route | Authority | What it can achieve |
|---|---|---|
| Town hall | Urban planning, activity licence | Procedure, cessation of activity, urban-planning penalty |
| Tourism inspectorate (autonomous community) | Regional tourist licence | Penalty procedure for operating without registration |
| Owners’ association (LPH) | The building’s internal regime | Formal demand and, where appropriate, civil court action |
| Platform (Airbnb, Booking…) | Their own rules | Withdrawal of the listing |
What evidence is worth gathering
A complaint with specific details progresses much better than a generic grievance. What tends to help:
- The exact address and, if you know it, the cadastral reference or the floor and door.
- The listing: link, screenshots with the price per night, the photos and, above all, whether a tourist registration number appears or not.
- Specific dates and facts: guest arrivals and departures, the presence of key boxes, check-in signage, noise incidents with date and time.
- Association documentation: minutes where the matter was discussed, the absence of the 3/5 agreement, statute clauses that prohibit the activity.
You do not need to gather exhaustive evidence or enter the flat: with the address and the listing, the inspectorate already has somewhere to start. If you report to the administration, ask whether they accept the complaint with your identifying details (the usual case) and how follow-up is handled.
What consequences someone operating without a licence faces
Operating without the regional tourist licence is not a minor offence. The fines are set by each regional tourism law and, depending on the autonomous community and the seriousness, reach six figures. You have the breakdown community by community in renting without a tourist licence: fines by region.
Beyond the fine, there are usually accessory consequences: withdrawal of the listing by the platforms, an order to cease the activity and, in the event of repeat offences, an increase in the penalty bracket. And if the dwelling does have a licence but does not submit the reports, the Ministry of the Interior penalty is added on top, ranging from 100 € to much higher amounts under RD 933/2021, as we detail in the penalties for not submitting the guest report.
Administrative deadlines exist, and each complaint is assessed case by case. The administration does not penalise automatically: it opens a procedure, checks and resolves. That is why providing specific details from the start speeds up the process.
And if you are the owner?
If you have reached this point because you are the one renting and you fear being outside the rules, regularising yourself almost always works out better on your own initiative than waiting for a formal demand. There are two separate obligations. The tourist licence of your autonomous community: in almost all of them this is a free responsible declaration on the electronic office, and you have the step-by-step register by register in the guide to tourist licences by autonomous community. And the guest report: once you operate within the rules, each guest generates a submission to SES.HOSPEDAJES within 24 hours; start with the SES.HOSPEDAJES guide to understand how it works.
This article is for informational purposes and does not replace professional legal advice. The channels, forms and competent bodies vary by municipality and autonomous community: always confirm the specific procedure with your town hall and with your community’s tourism website before filing a complaint.
