In fact, the councils could already be doing this, but “they gave a grace period, which has been going on since March until now”, said Eduardo Miranda, president of ALEP, in statements to the Lusa news agency.

“We know that some of them will start now [notifying], at the end of June. And, from the moment the city hall notifies the person, in the case of an administrative notification, the operators have only ten business days to present the insurance. If they do not do so, from that point on the registration will be effectively cancelled”, he warned.

“It is up to the city hall to notify the non-compliance”, and it is up to them when to do so. From that point on, “a legal deadline to remedy the situation” begins, which ranges from three to ten business days.

The obligation to have insurance has existed since 2018, but the submission of this document on the National Local Accommodation Registry platform was only introduced in the last amendment to the law, in 2024.

However, “the law does not determine a specific deadline for operators to make the first submission”, pointed out Eduardo Miranda.

Lusa news agency has already questioned the Ministry of Economy and Territorial Cohesion about this matter, but has not yet received a response.

So far, “almost 70 thousand” local accommodations – more than half of the current licenses – have not submitted insurance on the platform, according to ALEP.

Even though there are “a large number of inactive registrations” (according to ALEP, between 40 and 50 thousand), “there are still 20 thousand missing”, pointed out Eduardo Miranda.

ALEP has been “in regular contact” with Turismo de Portugal, which coordinates the platform, and has carried out “several campaigns” to publicise it. “This week we sent an email to all the registrations that have not yet submitted insurance”, he indicated.

Easy process

The president of ALEP considered that “the process is relatively easy”, pointing out other reasons for the inaction of so many owners.

“Many people do not dedicate themselves” to local accommodation as their main activity, “it is just a holiday home that they have”, and these people demonstrate “some lack of information” and “have not seen the campaigns”, he highlighted.

A second aspect, he added, is that “many of the contacts in the National Local Accommodation Registry database are out of date” and all communications are made by email.

The third factor, which is causing “greater concern”, are the owners who live outside Portugal, whether Portuguese or foreign, some of whom do not even speak Portuguese, and who provide local accommodation in a second home. “These people are not very involved in day-to-day life, in the news, they do not follow social networks, groups, our information, our website”, he lamented.

Appeal

Leaving an appeal for people to “not put it off” and to “register as soon as possible”, Eduardo Miranda recalled that this registration process was “requested by the sector a few years ago”, on the basis that a “clean-up is essential” in order to know “the real numbers” of local accommodation.

“Many of the policies that are being made, the regulations, take into account data that are not real. The presence of seasonal rentals is much lower than what has been reported”, he highlighted.

Eduardo Miranda also recalled that submitting the insurance “is an ongoing process”, to be repeated every year, whenever it expires, which will allow the database to be kept up to date.