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DRIVING

Do tourists have to pay Spanish traffic fines?

Almost 80 percent of foreign drivers fined for traffic violations in Madrid never pay up. But why is that, what could you be fined for, and how likely are tourists to actually have to pay Spanish traffic fines?

Published: 19 March 2024 08:53 CET
Do tourists have to pay Spanish traffic fines?
Can tourists in Spain get away with not paying traffic fines?(Photo by JAIME REINA / AFP)

In 2015, the European Parliament closed a legal loophole that allowed foreign drivers to easily escape traffic fines while abroad by (in theory) sending the paperwork to their country of origin and improving cross-border information exchange between authorities.

However, it hasn’t entirely worked. In Spain, tourists racking up speeding and parking tickets has long been a problem. According to Spain’s Dirección General de Tráfico (DGT), the French, Portuguese and Germans are the ones who commit the most traffic offences in Spain, usually for speeding. But getting them to actually pay their fines (multas) once they’ve left the country is proving difficult, and EU regulation doesn’t seem to have helped much.

For many years in Spain, foreign drivers simply left the country and prayed that the traffic fine wouldn’t find its way to their home country. If it did, many simply ignored them.

In Madrid for example, estimates suggest that as many as 80 percent of foreigners fined in Madrid never pay their traffic fines. That means tens of thousands of fines go unpaid each year, and that the authorities miss out on several million Euros in extra revenue.

Just 44,935 of the 232,849 total traffic fines have been paid (19.29 percent) — meaning we can say that roughly 8 out of every 10 traffic fines given to foreigners in the capital go unpaid. Though there’s no country-wide data, we can assume that the figure at the national level is somewhat similar, or to give a conservative estimate, at least above 50 percent.

Madrid’s city council has since brought in a payment collection service in view of trying to recoup the high level of non-payment from abroad, and the EU regulation to try and shore up this problem was consolidated in Spanish law in 2015, through Royal Legislative Decree 6/2015, which updated Spain’s Traffic Law.

So, the bureaucratic framework to chase fines is there, at least, but practically speaking, it doesn’t seem to happen much. That begs the question, do tourists have to pay Spanish traffic fines? Which fines can’t foreign drivers escape, and how do they pay?

READ ALSO:

Traffic fines in Spain

The Club Europeo de Automovilistas (CEA), regulates the cross-border exchange of traffic information, and it establishes eight main types of driving and traffic offences which will be communicated across borders, regardless of the European country where the offence is committed. These offences are:

  • Speeding
  • Failure to wear a seat belt or other approved restraint system.
  • Running a traffic light, stop sign or yield sign.
  • Driving with alcohol levels higher than those established by regulations.
  • Driving under the influence of narcotics, psychotropic drugs, stimulants and any other substance with similar effects.
  • Not wearing a helmet when riding a motorbike.
  • Driving in a forbidden lane, improper circulation on the hard shoulder or in a lane reserved for certain users.
  • Using a mobile phone or other communication device while driving.

READ ALSO: What are the drink driving limits and penalties in Spain?

Rental cars

For readers who’ve been fined while driving a rental car in Spain and wondering (hoping) if they can get away with it, know that the authorities can still identify you.

The EU Directive on cross-border exchange of information applies to all vehicles, whether private or rental. If a rental car picks up a traffic violation and is fined in Spain, the company will communicate the offender’s details to the competent authorities in order to process the fine. In fact, it may actually be more likely that you’ll have to pay it off this way, because rental companies require identification and address details.

In addition to the fine, you usually have to pay an additional surcharge for an administrative fee for “fine Management” charged by the rental company. In the event that your infraction leads to a traffic accident with damage to the vehicle, the damages will be excluded from the insurance liability limitation, and you’ll have to pay an additional surcharge on top of it.

What to do if you get a traffic fine in Spain?

So you got caught speeding in Spain and actually received a traffic fine at your home address. What happens now? You generally have three options: firstly, pay up (with a possible discount); secondly, appeal the fine; and thirdly, if you weren’t driving, prove you weren’t the driver.

Pay fine

The DGT handles all traffic fine payments in Spain. If you’re abroad, the easiest way to pay will be online, which you can do here, but you can also pay via phone, app, or in person if you wish.

If you pay within 20 days, you usually receive a 50 percent discount on the total amount.

Appeal fine

If you do not agree with the fine, you can appeal by submitting a plea or appeal with the evidence you consider appropriate.

You can do all this via the DGT website.

Not the driver?

If you receive a traffic fine from Spain and you weren’t the driver (whether someone else was driving your car or there was a mix up with dates and drivers at the rental company) you can challenge it. As per the DGT website: “If you were not the one driving the vehicle at the time of the offence, you can identify the driver within 20 days of receiving notification of the fine.”

In the case of minor offences identifying the driver is voluntary and if you pay the fine it will be understood that you were the driver. In the case of serious or very serious offences identifying the driver is compulsory. You have to identify the driver even if you are the driver. In these cases, if you do not identify the driver it will be considered a very serious offence, which may result in a large fine, and you will not be able to benefit from the 50 percent discount for paying off the fine within the voluntary period.

All the information on how to identify and report the driver is available here via the DGT. 

Do tourists have to pay Spanish traffic fines?

In conclusion, it seems that many foreigners fined for traffic offences in Spain never pay it off. However, the legal and bureaucratic and frameworks to chase offenders across borders (or send their fine to their home address, at the very least) do exist, and if the authorities in Madrid are taking further steps to chase up foreign drivers escaping justice, it seems like a crackdown could be beginning.

If you do speed or jump a red light in Spain, you’ll have to see if the bureaucratic machine kicks into gear and gets your fine to your home country. Of course, one way that you’ll definitely have to pay the fine is if you are caught red handed by a police officer.

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For members

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
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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