Every case is an owner who was sanctioned, appealed, and won. No empty claims, no promises: here are the case files.
Get your case reviewed →Real cases with anonymized data. Names are shown as initials to protect privacy.
An owner in the Eixample who occasionally rented out her primary residence. Since 2017, under the PEUAT, Barcelona City Council has automatically fined any flat listed on Airbnb €60,001, even if it was never actually rented out.
102 Barcelona residents — families and young people who occasionally rented out their primary residence — were fined €60,001. The ACABA association, led by Dylan Tarín, filed the first class action in the world against Airbnb for inducing infractions.
An owner who sold his property, after which the buyer kept operating it as a short-term rental using his credentials without his knowledge. The Balearic authorities held the registered holder of the expired license liable.
An owner who wanted to sell his property with the tourism license included in the price, before Barcelona City Council enforces the non-renewal in 2028. The transfer process faced administrative obstacles that were blocking the sale.
An owner who purchased a property in 2022 with a valid short-term rental license inherited from the previous seller. In 2024, Madrid City Council notified her of the retroactive annulment of that license, claiming the property did not meet the independent-access requirements at the time it was granted.
A family who owned a rural property in Ibiza whose application for a Tourist Home Stay license (ETV) was refused by the island council over alleged deficiencies in proving cadastral ownership. The property had been renovated and the investment was at risk.
A Valencian owner with a properly registered short-term rental against whom the regional government opened a sanction proceeding based solely on complaints from the president of the homeowners' association, without an on-site inspection or documentary evidence of the alleged infraction.
An owner with a valid HUTB license on whom the City Council imposed the maximum sanction and an immediate cease-and-desist order based on an inspection carried out during renovation of the flat, when the rental was temporarily out of service but not deregistered.
A young woman from Barcelona living in a small one-room rented flat. She was unemployed and looking for work. To cover the rent, she occasionally listed her home on Airbnb. Barcelona City Council fined her €30,001. "When I got the notice, my world fell apart," she said. She couldn't keep the flat and had to move back in with her parents.
At 60 years old and struggling to make ends meet, René Pérez decided to rent out a room in the flat where he lived. In 2019 he received a €60,001 fine from Barcelona City Council. He could not pay it, and three months later his bank account was seized. "On the verge of ruin," according to ACABA.
A single mother who owned a home in central Barcelona. She rented out rooms in her primary residence to cover her expenses. She received a €66,000 fine and a seizure order on her own home. "My life has been hell since the fine arrived," she said publicly.
Jordi became unemployed at 62 in 2018. He and his family decided to rent out a room in their home to help with household finances while he looked for work. Barcelona City Council opened a €60,001 sanction proceeding against him, without distinguishing his situation from that of a professional tourism operator.
Between 2017 and 2018, Darío rented out the flat he shared with his partner during periods when they were both away. An occasional, one-off use of his primary residence. When the fine arrived, what he himself described as his "worst nightmare" began. The City Council treated him exactly the same as a professional tourism operator.
Barcelona City Council sanctioned 5,077 Airbnb users in just two years: more than 2,500 with fines of €30,001 and another 2,577 with fines of €60,001, for the simple act of publishing a listing — many without having rented out a single day. Dylan Tarín filed the world's first class action against Airbnb for inducing infractions.
Since 2017, under the PEUAT, the City Council has issued automatic fines without distinguishing between the occasional rental of a primary residence and professional tourism operations. More than 250 residents affected, most of them young people and modest-income families who acted in good faith.
Source: Associació ACABA (associacioacaba.org) · Dylan Tarín, the association's lawyer
Real residents explain what it was like to be sanctioned and how their case was resolved.
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