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Legal notes in plain words — property, inheritance, residency and daily life in the Canary Islands, explained for international readers.
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Living in a tourist complex in the south of Tenerife: the single-operator rule, what an owner can and cannot do, and the window to 2028
A unit in a tourist complex is an accommodation unit, not a home: the Canary tourism Act binds every unit to one operator, the renovation Act forbids turning it into a dwelling, and fines run to 300,000 euros. What the courts decided in Arona and Gran Canaria, the question now before the Supreme Court, the decree-law that lets owners ask for a change of use until March 2028, the bill the Parliament rejected on 14 October 2026, the decree the Government announced, and ten papers to read first.
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Phishing and unauthorised payments in Spain: when the bank must give the money back
The bank's first answer is that the payments were authenticated with your credentials. Spanish payment law asks something else: did you consent? An unauthorised payment must be refunded by the end of the next business day, the bank bears the burden of proving fraud or gross negligence, and the Supreme Court called that liability quasi-strict in 2025. What the customer must do, what «gross negligence» has meant in the Canary courts, and the route: the bank, the Banco de España, the court.
Who keeps the family home after a divorce in Spain: use, mortgage and what changes when a new partner moves in
A Spanish divorce judgment decides who lives in the family home; it does not move the ownership or the mortgage. With minor children the use follows them until the youngest comes of age; with shared custody or no children it is given for a fixed time; a new partner living in the home ends it. Who pays the loan, the community fees and the IBI, why the use belongs on the Land Registry, and how to sell or buy out, with the Supreme Court rulings up to June 2026.
Winter lets in Spain after the October 2026 decrees: the seasonal contract came back on 2 October and left again on 8 October, pending the vote
A couple from Bergen and the same flat in Costa del Silencio every winter, read against the repeal of Real Decreto-ley 26/2026 on 2 October 2026 and against Real Decreto-ley 29/2026, which took the seasonal let out of the Urban Leases Act again on 8 October pending a vote: what made a let seasonal, the two-month deposit, how the season ends, the border with the holiday let, what a contract signed before 8 October keeps and what a new winter contract is now.
Transparent working conditions: the information every employer in Spain must hand over before the first day, from 5 October 2026 (Royal Decree 723/2026)
A restaurant in Corralejo hires a waiter who starts on 15 October: under Royal Decree 723/2026, which applies from 5 October 2026, he must hold seventeen items in writing before his first day — pay and each supplement, the hours and how they may change, the collective agreement, the systems that allocate his shifts. Who is covered, households included, how the document is delivered and proved, the thirty working days for the people already employed, and what a breach costs.
Spain's October 2026 rental decrees were repealed on 2 October and are back since 8 October: what applies to a lease now, pending the vote
A Dutch owner with two flats in Los Cristianos, one let to a family since 2022 and the other every winter to the same couple, read against the repeal of Real Decreto-ley 26/2026 and 27/2026 on 2 October 2026 and against Real Decreto-ley 29/2026, which brought most of their measures back on 8 October pending a vote: the extraordinary extension, the 2 % ceiling, the temporary-housing lease in place of the seasonal let, the small print, evictions, and what to do with the papers of those days.
Building licences and the cédula de habitabilidad in the Canaries: the three titles, the four-year clock and the papers a buyer must see before signing
A villa in Callao Salvaje with a 2009 pool and a 2023 glazed terrace, neither with a permit, read against the Canary land law, its 2018 regulation, the 2006 habitability decree, Ley 7/2026 and the state rules on deeds, taxes and the coast: which works need a licence, a prior communication or nothing; why no town hall issues a cédula de habitabilidad any more and what replaced it; the four-year clock and where it never runs; water and electricity; the notary; the fines; ten checks before signing.