&NewLine;<p>After differing rulings&comma; in two decisions by the Lisbon and Porto Courts of Appeal&comma; the Supreme Court of Justice has decided to&rsquo&semi;unify jurisprudence and the&rsquo&semi;impossibility of local accommodation coexisting&comma; in the same buildings with permanent accommodation&period;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Supreme Court rules on local accommodation in Portugal&complicating matters</h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The Supreme Court ruling reported last week by the&nbsp&semi;<a href="https://www.publico.pt/2022/04/21/economia/noticia/supremo-trava-alojamento-local-predios-habitacao-fixando-jurisprudencia-2003252">Público newspaper</a>&comma; notes that&rsquo&semi;under the "horizontal system of ownership&comma; the&rsquo&semi;indication in the constitutive title&comma; that&rsquo&semi;a certain fraction is intended for residential purposes&comma; must be interpreted as meaning that local housing is not&rsquo&semi;is not permitted"&period; Lawyers contacted by Advocatus believe that this decision could lead to several consequences&comma; such as&rsquo&semi;an increase in litigation and risks for investors&period;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>"The Supreme Court's decision was taken in the&rsquo&semi;uniformity of contrary decisions&comma; so although&rsquo&semi;it does not have the force of law &lpar;c&rsquo&semi;is forbidden&rpar;&comma; which means that nothing&&num;8217&semi;prevents the Supreme Court from changing its position in the&rsquo&semi;future&comma; the normal thing is at least for a long period to maintain this case law&comma; which implies that lower courts &lpar;although&rsquo&semi;they may theoretically diverge from this decision&rpar; will tend to follow this decision"&comma; explained José Luís Moreira da Silva&comma; partner at SRS Advogados&period;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Thus&comma; local accommodations located in residential buildings that are not entirely dedicated to this purpose will have great difficulty obtaining authorization&comma; pointed out the&rsquo&semi;lawyer&period;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Raquel Ribeiro Correia&comma; consultant at Antas da Cunha Ecija&comma; explained to Advocatus that from the point of view of ongoing litigation&comma; where the same fundamental question of law is at stake&comma; this ruling could have several impacts&period;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>"Whatever the value of the&rsquo&semi;case and the amount of the defeat&comma; an appeal will always be admissible against a decision taken against&rsquo&semi;a now standardized case law"&comma; she first stated&period; Raquel Ribeiro Correia also declared that "the appeal against a ruling of the court of&rsquo&semi;appeal which is in contradiction with another judgment of any court of appeal or of the Supreme Court&comma; against which no ordinary appeal is possible for reasons which do not fall within the jurisdiction of the court&comma; is not admissible if&rsquo&semi;it complies with the case law which has been unified here"&period;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Thus&comma; consultant d&rsquo&semi;Antas da Cunha Ecija believes that this decision will lead to an increase in litigation aimed at "declaring the illegality of&rsquo&semi;exploration&comma; under the local regime of&rsquo&semi;accommodation&comma; of autonomous fractions integrated into properties whose title to the horizontal property indicates that they are intended for residential use" and to "condemn the co-owners in question to cease this infraction&period;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Raquel Ribeiro Correia predicts that the increase in litigation will have an impact both on the profitability of this sector of economic activity and on the supply of fractions for residential use&period;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>"The&rsquo&semi;implication on investments already made is enormous&comma; as is the&rsquo&semi;increase in risk for investors in these situations&period; In&rsquo&semi;other words&comma; this decision&comma; together with the limitation of rental in various municipalities&comma; such as Lisbon or Porto&comma; jeopardizes rental and all adjacent services &lpar;construction and cleaning services&comma; etc&period;&rpar;&comma; thus cancelling out the economic and tourist potential that&rsquo&semi;they increasingly had"&comma; affirms José Luís Moreira da Silva&comma; partner at SRS&period;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The Supreme Court's decision accepted the position of the Porto&comma; courts, which in the first instance considered "illegal" the use of&rsquo&semi;a fraction of&rsquo&semi;a building&comma; located in the Sé&comma; zone in Porto&comma; for the establishment of&rsquo&semi;local accommodation&period; This decision was confirmed by the Court of Appeal&comma; which ordered the defendants "to immediately cease the use given" and to pay a daily penalty of 150 euros&comma; from the date of the judgment until the effective cessation thereof&period;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>"This decision by the Supreme Court of Justice may lead to the refusal of new applications for the registration of <a href="https://vivreauportugalconsulting.com/alojamento-local-au-portugal/" data-type="post" data-id="5627">Local housing</a> in all self-contained fractions intended for&semi;habitation&comma; whose residential destination is indicated in the horizontal title deed"&comma; according to Bernardo Marques&comma; associate attorney at RSA&period; "D&rsquo&semi;d'autre part&comma; et bien que la décision ne constitue pas une révocation immédiate de tous les registrations d&rsquo&semi;hébergement local accordés aux unités d&rsquo&semi;appartement dans cette situation&comma; il faut s&rsquo&semi;expect to see a significant increase in the number of applications for termination of the use of local accommodation units filed by other unit holders&comma; on the grounds that&rsquo&semi;they are not being used in accordance with their intended purpose&comma; with the consequent economic impact that such a limitation may cause&comma; given the high number of licenses in the form of&rsquo&semi;apartments that have been issued"&comma; he concluded&period; </p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h3 class="wp-block-heading">What does the LA association in Portugal have to say?</h3>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The president of the Association of Local Accommodation in Portugal, Eduardo Miranda, has already spoken out, admitting that he fears the consequences of the media coverage of this decision, but does not believe that it will provoke an avalanche of lawsuits, as current legislation already gives condominiums a simple tool;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>"What the&rsquo&semi;judgment&comma; says is that in conflicts that end up in court&comma; preference will be given to condominiums&period; But in the 2018 law&comma; this issue has proven to be largely outdated"&comma; argues Eduardo Miranda&period; "The law&comma; precisely to avoid conflicts before the courts&comma; created a mechanism&comma; called opposition&comma; which allows the co-ownership to make a request for&rsquo&semi;annulment&comma; which is simple&comma; free and relatively easy"&comma; he adds&period;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>He also claims that despite the new legislation&comma; there have been few requests for&rsquo&semi;annulment&period; "In four years&comma; we have about fifty requests&comma; most of which have been resolved through mediation&period; The number of cases that are brought before the courts is perfectly derisory"&comma; he declared&period; According to the&rsquo&semi;association&comma; local housing exists in around 60,000 apartments&period;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>"Few cases currently go to court because they are costly, time-consuming and the co-owner has an easier way of opposing them," he insists;</p>&NewLine;
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