A judge has ruled that the Barcelona City Council must grant a real estate agency 120 tourist apartment licenses that it had not admitted for processing, all on the same building on Tarragona street, as confirmed by the Deputy Mayor for Urban Planning Janet Sanz.
“The judge has forced us to admit these 120 new tourist apartment licenses. The interpretation that the judge has made, which we unfortunately cannot appeal to and with which we do not agree, is that when the licenses were not admitted, in 2019, there was a legal vacuum that allowed them to enter,” explained the deputy mayor.
When the real estate agency requested the 120 licenses for the activity of housing for tourist use, there was a ruling that annulled the Urban Plan for tourist accommodation, appealed to the Supreme Court, for which the Barcelona City Council considered that the rule was in force, but the judge It has now interpreted that it was not and that therefore those licenses should be accepted.
The deputy mayor who has recognized that the city council does not know if there are similar claims in court since there is no record of inadmissible tourist apartment licenses.
“We are very sorry about this situation. We are not throwing in the towel. We are looking for legal loopholes, checking whether these licenses meet all the urban and legal requirements to open the activity and other legal options to make the right to housing of the residents who live there prevail. on tourist use”, pointed out Janet Sanz.
The deputy mayor Sanz has announced that today she will request a meeting with the Government so that the Generalitat makes a proposal so that licenses for tourist apartments can be revoked when they create inconvenience or violate the right to housing and enable the municipalities to do so.
Janet Sanz has demanded laws from the State and the Generalitat that do not give “umbrellas to tourist apartments” and prevent licenses “from being requested without control, with a simple administrative statement”, as is the case now. She also calls on the European Union to force states to make the right to housing prevail over the right to do business.
