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FAMILY

The benefits and perks for parents of Spain’s long-awaited Family Law

After significant delays, Spain's Family Law has been updated and greenlighted with new benefits for single-parent families, unmarried couples, the length of parental leave, school subsidies, access to housing and more.

Published: 28 February 2024 10:54 CET
The benefits and perks for parents of Spain's long-awaited Family Law
Children on their parents' shoulders during San Fermín celebrations in Pamplona. (Photo by CESAR MANSO / AFP)

On Tuesday February 27th, the Spanish government gave the go ahead to its updated Family Law.

The legislation, which was first approved all the way back in December 2022, was finally sent back to the government’s Council of Ministers for some slight revisions but with the same legal text so that it does not have to pass through consultative bodies and be delayed again.

Despite being approved over a year ago, the law was not processed in 2023 as it lapsed with the end of the legislature due to the general election.

The government will request that it is urgently processed in the Spanish Congress. The wide-ranging law was also held up at various junctures, notably over regional powers.

Sources from Spain’s Ministry of Social Rights told the Spanish press that the law is split up into five parts: principles and values; general protection for all families; specific provisions for non-traditional family units; governmental cooperation so the measures can be carried out; and finally, regulatory changes.

There have been some slight tweaks to the bill since it was first approved at the end of 2022, but the thrust of the law is essentially the same: to make life easier for families by introducing measures such as extended paid leave to care for sick children and handing out a €100 cheque to all new mothers. It also includes families in non-traditional units in wider familial protections, and attempts to level the rights of unmarried couples to those of married couples.

READ ALSO: UPDATE: Five things you should know about Spain’s new Family Law

New measures

  • Single-parent families with two children will be included as large families and the changes recognise the diversity of different family models, including adoptive and LGTBI families, families with disabilities, and multiple or foster families.
  • It extends measures for carers, including the introduction of new permits for people who care for family members or co-dependents.
  • The law also creates a register of unmarried couples who will be able to access different types of leave, such as 15 days for marriage.
  • As for large families (described as “families with greater needs for child-rearing support” in the text) the law brings 300,000 single-parent households with two children or more into this category, with all the rights and benefits that this entails.
  • It also grants the same status to households with two children where a family member has a disability, those with a victim of gender violence, parents who have sole custody but do not receive child support, and those with two children in which one parent is in hospital treatment for a year or has been imprisoned.
  • The extension of parental leave from 16 to 20 weeks and the reformulation of parental leave allowing fathers and mothers to have eight weeks of leave per child during the first 8 years of life. 4 of the 8 weeks will be paid.
  • The law also establishes that single-parent families will have priority when choosing schools and accessing subsidised housing.
  • Likewise, single-parent families will have access to sixteen weeks of infant education free of charge within two years of birth.
  • The law also talks of creating a “state framework” to support the first 1,000 days since birth “to guarantee a good start in life for all girls and boys”, involving access to universal health care that includes risk assessment during pregnancy, early care support and the detection of developmental difficulties.
  • It also includes a progressive increase in the supply of school places in the first cycle of infant education to meet the needs of children up to 3 years old.

READ ALSO: Single parents in Spain: What benefits and aid are you eligible for?

Other key aspects of the law include:

  • A parenting cheque of €100 per month per child (€125 in the case of single-parent families) will be extended to mothers with children from ages 0 to 3 years, whether they work or not. Previously this was only given to those who were employed. This means it will include all mothers, even those who receive unemployment benefits. Those who have temporary or part-time work will also receive the benefit. According to Spain’s Ministry of Social Rights, this is set to benefit some 200,000 to 250,000 new mothers.
  • One of the most important perks of the new law is that it allows parents to take five days paid leave off work to look after a sick child. This is also extended to parents, grandparents, grandchildren and siblings, if you need to take care of any of these other members of your family.

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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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