Short-term rentals, Florence squeeze: penalties of up to 10,000 euro for those not in compliance

A maxi fine up to 10 thousand euro for those who do not respect the instructions of the Commune of Florence. The war of the administration led by Sara Funaro on the phenomenon of uncontrolled short-term rentals is enriched by a new chapter. The city council of the Tuscan capital has, in fact, approved the regulation for short tourist rentals announced in recent weeks. And it did so by moving in an opposite direction to that indicated by the Consiglio di Stato only a few weeks ago: the judges, in fact, had placed doubts on the restrictions placed on these activities at municipal level.

The new regulation was created with the aim of governing the phenomenon of short-term lettings. First of all, then, it sets a minimum limit of 28 square metres for dwellings in which to carry out this activity: this is a higher limit than the minimum for studios, recently set by the Home Saving (20 square metres, under certain conditions).

Alongside this, a Municipal Register and a system of authorisations lasting five years will be established. It will be compulsory, for example, to provide the declaration of building and town-planning conformity and that of compliance with health and hygiene regulations. Access to the property 'may not include the use of keybox or other similar devices intended to contain and provide keys or codes to circumvent the rules on ascertaining the identity of guests'. There are also constraints on the minimum surface area of single rooms (with one bed, 9 square metres; with two beds, 14 square metres). These authorisations lapse in the event of sale and even lapse in the event of lack of use of the property for twelve months.

The clampdown also affects undant labour. Authorisations for properties to be rented out may be revoked 'in any case when, in any of the functions connected with the exercise of the activity, the authorities in charge detect the use of irregular forms of labour'.

These constraints are coupled with a system of very heavy sanctions: from one thousand to ten thousand euro for business owners who are out of compliance. A fine that could multiply, since it will be triggered 'for each property unit for which the violation has been ascertained'. And which will affect jointly and severally the owner of the property 'and the person in charge of its management'. Real estate will also be subject to controls by the municipality, which will be able to act 'also through access to the real estate unit' and through digital verification systems, such as scraping activities, i.e. the extraction of information from online portals.