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What to do if your pet goes missing in Spain

For pet owners losing a pet or having them going missing from your home or neighbourhood is one of the worst scenarios. For those in Spain, here are all the steps you should follow if this happens.

Published: 14 March 2024 11:05 CET
What to do if your pet goes missing in Spain
What to do if your pet goes missing in Spain. Photo: ISSAM ELISPH / Pexels

Pets are often like beloved members of the family and for many it’s unthinkable for them to go missing, but unfortunately, it’s not all that uncommon.

Dogs may go running off if they get scared and cats may simply not return from exploring or they may be unfamiliar with a new area and not be able to find their way home.

Luckily there are several steps in place in Spain to help you locate your pet again or report its disappearance.

Firstly, Spain’s Animal Welfare Law which came into force last year, states that all dogs and cats must be registered and microchipped. This microchip provides information about both the animal and the owner and is designed to help in such situations as well as to prevent abandonment.

READ ALSO: What to do if you find an abandoned dog or cat in Spain

If your animal is found and taken to a local vet, they can easily scan the chip for information, find out who it belongs to and contact you.

Besides knowing that you have a microchip safety net in place, there are certain steps you should follow as soon as you’ve discovered your pet is missing.

  • Firstly, you must notify the Spanish Pet Identification Network (REIAC), where the data of all pets is registered.
  • Secondly, you should report the loss to your nearest local police station as soon as possible. They can be on the lookout for anyone who has come in to report a lost animal and look around while they’re on patrol.
  • It is also a good idea to notify your local vet so that they’re aware and can be on the lookout for any information about a lost animal that resembles yours.
  • Go back to the last spot you saw your pet and retrace the area again, it’s possible they may be hiding somewhere because they’re scared. Ask friends and family to join in the search so you have several people looking at once.
  • It’s essential, however, that someone stays behind at home in case the animal returns on its own. Cats particularly have very good homing instincts and may be able to find their way home even a few days after going missing.

READ ALSO: What you need to consider before adopting a rescue dog in Spain

  • Contact and visit animal shelters to ask if they have received a pet with the same description as yours or if they can be on the look out if they do.
  • Publish the loss social media networks. Rather than just posting to your individual page or profile, however, visit dedicated pages to post about your missing pet. Many locations in Spain will have particular social media pages, for example, Barcelona has a Cats Barcelona Facebook page where people often post information about their missing pets. Likewise, there’s also a Dogs Barcelona page. These pages are also where you’ll find people posting about finding lost pets, so it’s important to scroll through the recent posts to see if anyone has found your furry friend. There are more than likely several different pages in your area either in English or Spanish.
  • The traditional method of printing lost posters with a photo of your pet and description, as well as your contact details, also works. You can stick them to lampposts, noticeboards or in shop windows.
  • If there is a local or neighbourhood publication, as well as a radio station, it is also advisable to use these means to find your pet as soon as possible.
  • Keep in mind, that some insurance companies cover the cost of advertisements and poster printing in the event your pet goes missing.
  • Remember that when you find your animal, it’s important to inform all these places again, so that people aren’t still out looking for them.

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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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