The Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 20230 is also investigating other real estate agencies for charging illegal commissions to tenants and forcing them to contract unsolicited services.

The Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030 has opened a sanctioning procedure against a large real estate agency operating nationwide for possible abusive practices against tenants in the management of rentals. This new sanctioning procedure opened by the Directorate General for Consumer Affairs is part of the investigation initiated in October 2024 by the Ministry led by Pablo Bustinduy. This investigation is still underway about other real estate agencies that may also have committed these or other practices.

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Consumer Affairs opens disciplinary proceedings against large real estate company for abusive practices against tenants

The Directorate General for Consumer Affairs has requested information from these agencies after receiving complaints about this type of action from the Sindicato de Inquilinas-CECU, FACUA Consumidores en Acción and the OCU (Consumers and Users Organisation). These complaints highlight infringements such as paying a commission for the management of the lease, imposing the contracting of insurance or the obligation to contract services not requested by the tenant. In this regard, the Consumer Affairs Department points out that the ‘Law 12/2023 of 24 May on the right to housing’ expressly prohibits passing on to tenants the costs of property management and formalising the contract.It also indicates that these clauses or practices could constitute infringements which, according to the Consumer Defence Law, could be classified as:

Serious, and punishable by fines of up to 100,000 euros, which may be exceeded by up to four to six times the illicit benefit obtained.
Very serious, and be sanctioned with fines of up to one million euros, with the possibility of exceeding these amounts by up to six to eight times the illicit benefit obtained.
This new sanctioning procedure by Consumer Affairs joins the sanctioning proceedings opened three months ago against a platform dedicated to the rental of tourist accommodation.

In this case, the proceedings were initiated because this platform maintains thousands of advertisements for this type of accommodation, which were classified as illegal advertising for infringing the General Law for the Defence of Consumers and Users. The Directorate General for Consumer Affairs asked the platform to immediately remove these advertisements and, given its refusal, the case was opened.

Along the same lines, in February, Consumer Affairs opened sanctioning proceedings against companies that manage tourist accommodation in different autonomous communities after detecting that these managers were offering ‘false information or information which, although truthful, could mislead the recipients, due to its content or presentation’, which would constitute a misleading practice likely to alter economic behaviour, as defined in Article 5 of the Unfair Competition Act. This is, for example, indicating in the advertisement that the person managing a tourist accommodation is a private person, or several persons, when in fact it would be a company.

The Ministry headed by Pablo Bustinduy reminds us that housing is a right and a basic necessity protected by law.

All these initiatives are part of the objective set as a priority action of the Ministry of Social Rights and Consumer Affairs to protect the rights of consumers in access to housing. Concerning tenants’ rights, the Consumer Affairs Department has already carried out informative actions with market operators on potential abusive conduct in rental contracts. These practices are also contrary to current legislation, such as requiring tenants to pay disproportionate deposits, to take on additional guarantees or to pay monthly rent in advance.

The Directorate General for Consumer Affairs points out that the initiation of this sanctioning procedure does not prejudge the final result of the investigation.