Fine for illegal tourist rentals in Formentera reduced from €530,000 to €82,000

The Governing Board of the Consell de Formentera, in its session held on 13 February, approved the imposition of an €82,000 fine for a very serious tourism-related offence, after revising downwards an initial sanction proposal that amounted to €530,000 across two separate cases opened against the same operator. The reduction is based on a change in the Administration’s criteria, which ultimately decided to merge the proceedings and calculate the penalty solely on the basis of payments it considers proven during the inspection.

The approved resolution brings together cases PS 7/2024 and PS 2/2025, which stem from an inspection carried out on 5 September 2024 at two tourist establishments operated by the companies Formentera Mar, S.A. and Salinera Española, S.A., located in La Savina. Both cases relate to the same tourist operation on the same plot and under the same commercial name, Cas Saliners. After reviewing an appeal from the company involved, the Consell accepted that there was a direct connection between the facts and that they should be resolved jointly.

Without the required licence

In the first case, the Administration referred to the building known as Cas Carabiners, a complex of tourist apartments where a higher number of units and places than authorised were being marketed, without the necessary licence. The second sanctioning procedure concerned the tourist marketing, also without a licence, of the establishment known as Casa Gran, consisting of nine units with a capacity of 35 places.

Initially, the proposal was to fine Formentera Mar €480,000 in the case of Casa Gran and €50,000 in the case of Cas Carabiners, for two offences classified as very serious. However, following the company’s appeals, the Consell’s legal services accepted the request to merge the procedures and also concluded that the initial valuation was excessive in terms of the amount.

The report submitted to the Governing Board states that, for reasons of proportionality, the reference should not be the total of the nine units attributed to Casa Gran, but only “the income verified at the time of the inspection”.

Specifically, the case file refers to three occupied units at the time of the inspection for which payments could be confirmed: one for €2,350, another for €4,231.30 and a third for €600. Based on these amounts, and maintaining the classification of a very serious offence, the proposed fine was reduced to €82,000, a figure ultimately approved by the Governing Board.

During the process, the island administration rejected the rest of the arguments put forward by the company, upholding the actions of the Tourism inspector by recalling that official reports drawn up by public officials in the exercise of their duties carry a “presumption of accuracy”. It also considered that the right to defence had not been violated and that the operator had the opportunity to submit arguments during the proceedings.

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