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PROPERTY

Rent a terrace: New rental portal launched for private parties and barbecues

Summer is here and you would like nothing better than to invite your friends around for a barbecue on your rooftop terrace and sip cocktails as you watch the sun sink below the surrounding cityscape.

Published: 13 June 2018 17:00 CEST
Rent a terrace: New rental portal launched for private parties and barbecues
A new service lets you rent a terrace for private events. Photo: Atiko.co

The only flaw is that you live in an interior studio flat on the 3rd floor and there isn’t enough room to swing a cat, let alone invite 15 of your best friends round for some al fresco dining.

Well, help is at hand and your dreams of open air entertaining can be realised thanks to Atiko.co, a new rental portal launched for Madrid, Barcelona and Sevilla.

READ ALSO: Madrid's best rooftop bars 

Operating in the same way as Airbnb, the new website connects owners who have fabulous rooftop or garden spaces with people who want a venue for a private party.

The online community marketplace is the brainchild of Hilaire Besse and Oscar Jorge, who were flatmates in Barcelona longing for a rooftop experience.

“We always wanted to have barbecues with friends on a rooftop. But we didn’t have a rooftop, nor a barbecue,” Besse told The Local.

“One day we were walking around the Bunker del Carmen in Barcelona – a place with views across the city – and we figured out that on virtually every Barcelona building was a rooftop terrace. So we thought there were a market there, and maybe we could finally have our barbecue on someone else’s rooftop!” she said.

A year later and they have 80 rooftops signed up to the site and have staged more than 200 events.

For the price of €150 for one day, you can rent a terrace overlooking Madrid’s Gran Via with a barbecue that can host 12 people – booking runs from noon to 1am – and comes with a cleaning fee of €25.


A terrace with views across Barcelona’s Gothic quarter for 15 guests can be yours for a day for €150. Photo: Atiko.co

“By far the biggest demand is for those holding 30th birthday parties. But we have more and more companies reaching out to hold corporate events,” Besse explained.

The big advantage for the owner is that they can make extra cash with minimum effort.

“The owner can earn an average of €250 per event without even leaving their house. They just stay home and check that everything is going OK on their terrace. So far we have earned €40,000 for owners and that makes us supper happy!” Besse said.

The co-founders insist that the initiative creates no trouble among neighbours by setting the hours of the event to minimise the impact of noise on fellow residents in the building and that unlike Airbnb, which has seen a backlash for driving up prices, the service is mostly used by locals.

“Firstly, we are NOT a service for tourists,” insists Besse. “Our users are people living in the city (they can be French, Spanish, Catalans, English, but they all live in the city).

“Second, the Atiko rooftop’s owners are living in their flat all year long, it’s not something like Airbnb where they are entire flats dedicated to this business.”

READ MORE Top Ten: Barcelona's coolest rooftop bars 

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PROPERTY

BBQs, nudity and plants: What are the balcony rules in Spain?

Though many people hang laundry, plants, and flags from their balcony, in Spain the rules on what you can and can't do on 'el balcón' are not well-known.

Published: 8 May 2024 17:13 CEST
Updated: 11 May 2024 08:31 CEST
BBQs, nudity and plants: What are the balcony rules in Spain?

Imagine the scene: you’ve just bought or signed the lease on your dream apartment. It’s bright and airy, with plenty of space, and even has a nice-sized balcony to get some fresh air on. You can do whatever you want there, right? 

Not exactly. In Spain the rules on what you can and can’t do on a balcony (even if it’s private) depend on a few factors, namely the regional and local rules, as well as getting the approval of the building’s homeowner’s association – known in Spain as la comunidad.

Some of them might just surprise you.

READ ALSO: ‘La comunidad’: What property owners in Spain need to know about homeowners’ associations

There are four main things or activities on balconies that could potentially put you on the wrong side of the local rules and even get you fined: barbecues, plants, laundry, and flags.

In all cases (even if you don’t think you’re breaking any rules) you’ll generally need to consider two things: firstly, does this affect or change the building’s façade? And secondly: will la comunidad allow it?

Barbecues

In Spain there is no national law prohibiting barbecues on private property, so in principle it is legal as long as the barbecue is lit in a private space such as your own balcony, garden or terrace, and not a shared space.

Often in Spain, the roof (usually referred to as la terrazza) is a shared space people use for storage and hanging their laundry, so be sure to check with the comunidad.

In terms of your own balcony, however, although there’s no law saying outright you can’t have a barbecue, you’ll need to take into account the rules and regulations in force in each locality or region. There may also be specific rules within the building that long-term homeowners have developed over the years.

As we will see, many of these low-level regulations are delegated to local governments and town halls in Spain, so the answer to these sorts of questions is usually: it depends where you are.

However, according to Article 7 of Spain’s Horizontal Property Law, “the owner and the occupant of the flat or premises are not allowed to carry out in it or in the rest of the property activities prohibited in bylaws, which are harmful to the property or which contravene the general provisions on annoying, unhealthy, harmful, dangerous or illegal activities.”

This basically gives your neighbours the right to complain about noise, smells, smoke and any possible fire risk in or around their building, which barbecues could plausibly fall under.

As with co-living anywhere in the world, regardless of the regional or local rules, employ some common sense: be reasonable, listen to neighbour’s concerns and take up any disputes with the President of la comunidad.

READ ALSO: What you need to know before having a barbecue in Spain

Plants

Again, with plants the responsibility falls on each local authority to set the rules. In Spain, most regions and town halls state that, as long as the architectural or structural elements of the building are not changed or weakened in any way, putting plants on your balcony is permitted.

However, note that many terraces and balconies do have maximum weight regulations that must be respected in order to guarantee their safety, which is 200kg per square metre. If this figure is exceeded (and it can be proved) you could theoretically be fined.

Laundry

Laundry lines criss-crossing the streets might be one of the more picturesque images of Spanish life, but the people doing it might actually be breaking the rules.

How do you know? You guessed it, it depends where you. You’ll need to check with your local authority on this one, though municipal regulations in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia all regulate hanging laundry from your balcony, which is again outlined in the Horizontal Property Law.

This principally seems to be because it affects the façade of the building (a common theme when it comes to balcony rules in Spain).

In places with rules about hanging laundry from balconies, you could be fined up to 750 euros if you don’t comply with the rules.

However, according to Foto Casa, even if you live in an area where there are no bans or penalties against hanging laundry on the balcony, you’ll still likely need the permission of la comunidad.

READ MORE: Spain’s weirdest laws that foreigners should know about

What about flags?

Whether it be the Spanish flag, the Catalan, Valencian or Andalusian flags, or LGBT, trade union or football team flags, flags proudly hanging from balconies is another mainstay of Spanish life.

It’s also one of the more controversial ones too, especially within comunidad meetings. Hanging flags on the balcony, as well as allegedly altering the aesthetics and security of the building (the same concern as with laundry) often has ideological connotations that can cause conflict.

Again, as with laundry, hanging flags on the balcony will require the approval of all the owners within the community, something that must be agreed at a meeting, as per the Horizontal Property Law.

However, if the flag is placed inside the property, as it is a private property, fellow homeowners cannot oppose it, even if it is visible from the street, according to Foto Casa.

Nudity 

Article of 185 of Spain’s Penal Code only considers being naked at home to be obscene exhibitionism and sexual provocation if it affects minors, in which case it is punishable with a fine or up to a year in prison.

Therefore, you could technically sunbathe shirtless or naked on your balcony in most cases without getting into trouble, although it won’t necessarily go down well with your neighbours and/or flatmates and you be reprimanded for it.

READ ALSO: Can you go shirtless or wear a bikini in the street in Spain?

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