New documents confirm that the Vistamar hotel in Benalmádena is in an illegal situation

The Vistamar is a "squatted" and "clandestine" hotel. The first term is the one that would be used by anyone who knows that whoever operates the establishment has never had a contract allowing them to do so and, furthermore, does not pay rent. The second description is defined by the Andalusian tourism law, which applies when services are provided without meeting legal requirements - as the establishment continues to do today. The regulations require any business in the tourism sector (not only hotels) to be registered in the Andalusian tourism register (RTA) and since 3 December 2024, the hotel, which currently operates under the name Vivemar, is officially a "clandestine" establishment.

On that date, the ministry of tourism of the Andalusian regional government cancelled the hotel's registration, according to a communication sent by the territorial delegation in Malaga of this department to Benalmádena town hall, to which SUR has had access. The cancellation is the resolution of a file initiated on 18 July 2024 following the complaint filed by the property owner, the company Promociones Los Nadales. The company was tired of the town hall continuing to allow the hotel to be open after the high court of justice of Andalucía (TSJA) - in December 2022 - had declared that it was what we call 'squatting': a company that exploits a hotel without being its owner, without having a contract that allows it to do so and not paying rent. For August, the price of a room in the main online search engine starts at 166 euros without breakfast.

The council became aware of the deregistration on 5 February, which is when ministry of tourism sent the requested communication. In reality, this wasn’t necessary, as the regional government provides a public search engine granting access to the RTA, as they point out in the letter itself. With the information from the regional ministry in hand, the town hall did not sign the closure decree until 6 May, three months later, and did not execute it until 17 June, which is when the hotel was sealed and the case was reported in the national press. Before that, on 9 June, the council notified the company that operated the hotel of "the compulsory execution of the activity" and gave it until that day to do so, according to the council.

Just two days after the sealing, on 19 June, a judge endorsed the closure by denying in an order the precautionary measures requested by the operating company. In spite of this, the council proceeded to lift the seal "when it became aware that a new company had presented a declaration of responsibility for the start of the activity". The company, Vive resort management, which had not even appealed the closure decree, provided a contract dated October 2024 using the same formula that the courts had declared illegal in the first instance: the transfer of a lease agreement. This method has consistently been used to usurp control of the hotel from its rightful owners, involving a series of successive companies (after the original leasing company stopped paying rent and eventually went into bankruptcy administration).

When questioned by SUR, the town hall now says that it has not given validity to the declaration of responsibility that allowed the hotel to be unsealed and that it has communicated this to the company (in both cases, without specifying dates), to the extent that the closure decree of 6 May is still "in force". The local administration of Benalmádena goes so far as to assure that the sealing was merely "instrumental" in nature and that the lifting was done "to facilitate the passage of people while the new documentation was being analysed".

Even so, the council assures that it is taking "the appropriate steps" to execute it, without specifying what it needs to do to comply with its legal obligation to ensure the effectiveness of its own acts three months after having issued them, especially when the council has known for just over a month - based on information provided by the owners - that the TSJA ruling has become final by virtue of a supreme court ruling. Meanwhile, eight months after the ministry of tourism cancelled the inscription in the register and almost six months after the town hall was informed, the "squatted" and "clandestine" hotel continues to operate normally. The owners continue to pay around 100,000 euros a year in taxes to the town hall for the hotel, while they are still waiting for it to enforce the closure.