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Agency liability for the unlicensed listing

Whoever advertises it is liable. In Andalusia, Law 13/2011 holds the marketing agency liable even for simple carelessness. In the Valencian Community, Law 15/2018 targets whoever runs the activity and leaves the owner only second in line. Publishing is itself the offence - no guest needs to arrive for the case file to exist.

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What the statutes say, unsoftened

Andalusia: Law 13/2011 sanctions advertising tourist services without registration (art. 30.4). It pins liability on whoever performs the conduct "even through simple inobservance" - in plain English, plain carelessness (arts. 71.2 and 73.1). Not knowing your client's licence had lapsed is no defence. It is the very conduct the law sanctions.

Valencia: Law 15/2018 directs liability at whoever carries on the tourist activity. The owner comes second in line (art. 88): they answer only if, when required, they fail to identify the operator. Advertising without the number and exact location is a free-standing serious offence (10,001-100,000 euros, art. 19.1.b with 92.16). With no registration at all, it is very serious (100,001-600,000).

The usual miscalculation

"The licence belongs to the owner, so the problem is theirs." In the two regions that hold most of the southern and eastern coastal market, that is exactly backwards. The law pursues the marketing, and the marketing is what the agency does. The owner enters the file later - sometimes never.

Then add the channel. Since December 2024 the guest-data reporting duty reaches intermediaries too (RD 933/2021), and platforms pass every removal's consequences to the advertiser. That is three separate fronts - tourism, interior ministry, platform - all pointing at the same desk.

The defence that actually works

Diligence you can prove. Check every dwelling against the official register nightly. Keep the dated trail. Pull or fix the listing the moment something changes. An agency that works this way avoids most files - and reaches the unavoidable ones holding proof that its conduct was the opposite of carelessness. That is this product, and it costs less than a single bottom-band fine.

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Sources

Verified against the sources above on 2026-09-01. LicenceDesk is operational guidance, not legal advice.

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