A landmark win for residents.
A Spanish family in Madrid fought for their fundamental right to privacy and won a landmark case against tourist rentals. A judge ordered 10 tourist flats in their building to close after finding that they inflicted psychological damage on the family and harmed their quality of life. This verdict comes on the heels of growing demands in Spain to restrict tourism and could pave the way for future lawsuits.
The unnamed family in Madrid’s Plaza Mayor has two children. They offered evidence that the ongoing presence of vacation rentals has caused them anxiety and sleep deprivation. Their apartment is part of a block of 60 flats, 75% of which are tourist rentals. Their lawyer said there’s a rental flat above them, below them, and near their bedrooms. They endured loud noises, destructive behavior, and lewd acts by tourists. The owner tried to justify these as routine disruptions for neighbors, but the court did not agree.
The case was significant because the lawyer did not challenge the rentals’ presence but focused on activities that disrupted the family’s life. Ample evidence supported their claims, and the judge agreed the family faced stress because of the rentals. “The constant noise, the breaking of shared fixtures, the filling of the lobby with suitcases at all hours and the presence of shopping trolleys filled with towels and other cleaning items for the multiple tourist-use flats, thus impeding the movements of neighbours, have been duly proven and are not isolated incidents,” she said in her ruling. Tourists also broke mailboxes, vomited in the courtyards, and had sex in common areas, prompting multiple police visits. In one instance, the building had to hire a security guard.
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She also confirmed the family’s fundamental right to privacy had been violated and ordered the owner to pay €39,000 in damages. The judge ruled that the 10 rental flats must be shut down.
Their lawyer, Miguel Ángel Rubio, said the family had been fighting for two years after unsuccessfully seeking help from the city council. They complained to the police, who used a decibel meter and fined the owners €16,000 ($18,725). “But the problem is that [the companies that own these flats and others] can make more than €150,000 in rents in a single weekend, so a €16,000 fine is nothing for them. So I had to bring a case on the grounds that the family’s fundamental rights were being violated – and it succeeded.”
The family is happy with the verdict. Rubio said that after this landmark win, he has been inundated with calls from other residents in similar situations.
Locals in Spain have been vocal about mass tourism’s problems, and every year, thousands take to the streets to protest a situation they say is getting out of hand. Short-term rentals are pushing out residents, and tourism is driving up living costs. Spain is taking measures to restrict tourist numbers. Barcelona plans to phase out tourist rentals by 2028, and the country has ordered the removal of more than 65,000 Airbnb listings that don’t comply with regulations. Booking.com was ordered to remove 4,000 illegal listings, most of them in the Canary Islands.
Related: Check Your Airbnb Booking — Hundreds of Illegal Listings Have Been Removed in One Hotspot