Although the Airbnb platform, through which private individuals rent out their rooms and real estate to tourist, has been around for at least a decade, Slovenian legislation still fails to adapt to the tourism trends.
Due to the many rules, complex bureaucracy and mostly because of the complaints of other commonhold unit owners in apartment buildings, it is almost impossible to legally rent out real estate though Airbnb.
"The first day we decided to rent our apartment we had all the papers, except the consent of all the other commonhold owners in the building. That’s a big problem. Many times the owners of the other apartments are not home, very often they have tenants in their apartments – mostly unregistered – and those don’t want to say anything. And then you have the other owners, which just refuse to give you the consent," tells us Matej. He first rented out his inherited apartment to long-term tenants, but because of some bad experience he decided to renovate two years ago and offer it to tourists. Matej stresses that acquiring the consent of 75 or even 100 percent of all the owners in a building is completely without reason.
"Who in Slovenia has ever even succeeded in getting such a high level of consent for whatever purpose? Only in our independence referendum and our entry to NATO. And then you make someone in an apartment building try reach an even higher level of consent… it’s illogical." Matej says he does not understand the fear of other apartment owners and says Airbnb guests are like mice. "They are very considerate, they are aware that they are guests in someone’s home and building. So what do you think they do? Sit in the apartment, go up and down with the elevators, draw on the walls and empty the fire extinguishers? No, they go out, go sightseeing in the town. The only things they do in the apartment is sleep and eat breakfast."
Numerous obligations for a legitimate business
In 2015 Slovenian hosts offered more than 6,000 beds through the Airbnb platform and accommodated almost 70 thousand guests. The average cost for a daily rental in Ljubljana cost around 55 euros, 69 euros by the coast, and a good 70 euros in Bled.
An owner wishing to rent out his real estate through the Airbnb online service needs to have the consent of at least 75 percent of all the apartment owners in the same building, evidence of ownership or the right to use the real estate, a certificate of occupancy, the real estate’s classification, and a registration as a landlord with the Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Public Legal Records and Related Services (AJPES). The hosts will then also have issue invoices and fiscally verify them, report the personal data of their guests to state authorities, pay the tourist tax…
"The quickest way is to register as a room lessor and lease 15 beds five months a year. You will also have to cover the prepayment of income taxes, announce income from self-employment, pay all the other contributions, and then send your figures to the statistics office," says Tanja Smrekar, a journalist at the Finance magazine.
Rok Kužel, TV Slovenija; translated by K. J.
