Mike.M wrote:Frank ..... agree 110%!
Legal properties and hotels pay their dues, income tax, VAT, corp tax etc. and have essential overheads e.g. commercial rubbish collection, public lability insurance, H&S conformance etc. Plus there's the internal mods .... emergency lighting, medical kit, fire extinguishers, minimum room sizes etc.
Black market operators are not paying their dues, deliver a sub standard product and are taking the food out of the mouths of honest families that contribute to society.
Yes, it's strange that people here are always moaning about Brits not complying with the rules of the country (UK cars etc), people fiddling Incapacity Benefits etc, but seem in favour of them fiddling the Spanish taxman by running unlicensed, illegal letting properties. Seems they've got into the Spanish mindset, let's do everything on the black.
We have friends that do it legally, so everything is inspected, why should they pay and some Brit down the road not pay? I'm amazed people are advocating staying in properties that do not have all the necessary safety measures in place. Our friends let through several up market agency's, one of them being James Villas, and although that's nothing to do with the Spanish legal requirements, they are incredibly strict.
Edit. haven't done anything different, but the "quote" thingy seems to be working again for a while!