Condominium owners can stop neighbours from letting their properties to tourists, according to a judgment in the Court of Appeal in Lisbon which states that as the act of letting property is a commercial activity and that the condominium owners assembly may prohibit the assignment of one or more parts of a building for rent to tourists.
The huge increase in city-focused tourism in recent years has driven the short-term local accommodation market like never before but has created tension between apartment owners with permanent residents turning against those owners who let their property to tourists.
The Lisbon judgment was based on the Civil Code (Article 1418), which says the condominium rules can be changes but only by a change in the title deeds which would need the agreement of every apartment owner.
Further north in Oporto, the Court of Appeal has an entirely different view and decided that apartment owners may not prevent their neighbours from renting out their property to tourists
The court states that neighbours may not, "impose material restrictions on the content of the property rights of each condominium owner over their property."
The Oporto case came to court in September 2016 after a condominium association brought a case against an apartment owner to stop him rent his property to tourists.
The first court suspended tourist rentals but the appeal was successful.
The complaints over tourism lettings centre on the noise tourists make, the over-use of elevators and wear and tear to common areas, “but this is not sufficiently grave to stop tourist lettings,” according to the judgment summary.
The short-term lettings business has intensified in Portugal’s city centers allied to the success of websites such as Airbnb.
The concern is that landlords are terminating long-term rental contracts to get involved in the more lucrative sort-term lettings market.
How these two diametrically opposed judgements leaves the tourist lettings market in apartments in the country outside Oporto and Lisbon remains to be seen.
