Tourist Licence Changes

If a property is to be let the owner must acquire a Tourist Licence (EOT).  Some tragic recent events have resulted in a serious hardening of the rigour with which the law with respect to EOT health and safety requirements is applied.

Originally the need to obtain EOT sub-licences (proof of maid’s health, lifeguard licence, Pool Cleaning Certificate, First Aid Certificate etc) did not discriminate between different types of leased property.  This blanket treatment resulted in many owners leasing their properties without obtaining an EOT.  Recognising that leasing a simple house is different from running a hotel, a change has been made to the law to make the application more relevant to the type of building involved.  The EOT is now divided into categories, (category names are unknown but assume 1, 2 and 3 for simplicity):

1.      Hotel
2.      A ‘Multi House Property’, i.e. a piece of land on which permission from a single planning application has been granted to build more than one house.
3.      A ‘Single House Property’, i.e. one for which planning permission has only been granted for the erection of a single dwelling.

Forget category 1 (unless you are planning to build an hotel).

Category 3 applicants will find the application process lengthy (many months at least) but achievable despite Greece’s love affair with bureaucracy.  It can be made much less demanding (but more expensive) if the applicant uses a specialist to undertake the process.  Prior to being granted an EOT the owner will, amongst other things, have to prove that the house meets all building regulations.  The house will also be inspected by the Fire Dept.  If necessary the owner will be expected to install fire extinguishers, fire hoses, emergency exit signs and so on in the house.

It looks as if Category 2 will present an extra layer of difficulty because it is treated as if it is a hotel for EOT purposes.  For example, imagine that a property developer buys a piece of land and under a single planning application is granted permission to build a number of houses on it. He then splits the land and sells each house and its plot to individual owners.  This is very common practice.  However, the new law assumes that if a piece of land has permission to build more than one house on it and an application for a tourist licence is made for any of the houses then the requirement of the applicant is to lease all of the houses covered by the single planning application.  Even though each house is owned by different people each EOT application will have to cover, in addition to all the requirements of a Category 3 dwelling, the sub-licences touched on in the second paragraph.

Hi how does it work for an aprtment in a shared block then I.E i want to lease my aprtment but my neihbour doesnt rent theres?? any ideas??

Thanks

Hi Eleni
Thanks for posting the info. I wonder though if you or any other members can give me some advice on the subject of obtaining the EOT.
My wife and i have recently had a house built, originally for our own holiday use then in the future as our home come retirement time. We are now having second thoughts about (just our use) because of the lengths of time it is empty.
What are the criteria for a rental property? I.E  room sizes, emergency exits etc? Where do we make enquiries about obtaining the EOT? Also the Costs involved in obtaining the EOT.
I would appreciate as much advice on the subject as you readers can give me.

Please accept my advanced appologies if the subject has been covered before but i am fairly new to the forum.

I was told by the engineer/architect that an eot license is not realy obligatory, but if you want to rent your house out through an agency or like hotels who deal with big companies,  you have to have one...and depending in which category you are, you have to renew the EOT every so often....

If you own a house, there is no law saying you can't rent it out without an EOT, you simply can't work with an agency or better to say, they won't want to work with you....

Anyone any comments ?

Gerald wrote on 08. Aug 2007 at 01:19:

I agree with Gerald's comments.
It is not for nothing that a very large number of additional civil servants have been drafted in to Crete to clamp down on EOT dodgers.  You might just get away with letting to "friends" for a while, but you only need to upset one neighbour........

We have been told by both our accountant and lawyer that any income arising from renting property in Crete must be declared to the Greek tax authorities who take the view that the property is here so the income must declared here.

The only circumstance in which it is legal to rent out property without an EOT licence is if the letting is for three months or longer and the authorities are checking more and more.

It should be borne in mind, too that the tax authorities can be a law unto themselves here. If they check when someone who is not strictly a friend is staying what happens? How do you prove you haven't been paid? Suppose the tax man simply refuses to believe that they are non-paying guests. Show your bank statements? "Ah, you must have been paid in cash."

It has happened and the authorities dreamed up a notional weekly rental, multiplied by the number of weeks from the first tourist flight arriving and demanded the tax on that (this happened in mid-August a couple of years ago). The property owner also got hit with a €10K fine for good measure. Is it worth the risk? All it takes is one phone call from a licenced owner who is having trouble renting their property and believes it's because you're undercutting them as you're not paying fees and tax.

margaritari