The misuse of personal data relating to property services, such as electricity, gas and water, continues to be practiced by municipalities to identify empty properties.Property owners’ right to leave a property occupied is costing them dear as property rates (IMI) are being charged at three times those applicable if the house was occupied.
This year, 8,239 property owners have received vastly increased rates bills as unoccupied or dilapidated houses legally are being penalised under current legislation which 54 of Portugal’s 308 Councils have adopted and pursued with vigour.
Last year, only 22 municipalities applied the ‘aggravated charge’ but the idea is catching on.
The rates trap sees IMI trebled "in cases of urban buildings that have been vacant for more than a year and of buildings in ruins," reads the decree law.
"The urban building or the autonomous fraction that is unoccupied for a year is considered to be unoccupied where there is evidence of a lack of contracts with telecommunications companies, water, gas and electricity supply and the absence of billing related to consumption of water, gas, electricity, and telecommunications."
Excluded from the rules are 'holiday homes or homes for temporary use, residences of Portuguese emigrants working outside the country or houses being rebuilt or having extensive repairs.'
To spot the absentee owners, service providers are ‘expected to collaborate’ with Councils in identifying uninhabited homes despite this sharing of data representing a serious violation of personal rights.
To spot the absentee owners, service providers are ‘expected to collaborate’ with Councils in identifying uninhabited homes despite this sharing of data representing a serious violation of personal rights.
