Now that Parliament has approved the Mais Habitação program for a second time, the President of Portugal is required by law to officially approve the text, which will eventually be published in the Diário da República and come into effect one day after publication, possibly within 1 month or earlier.
ALEP, the national Alojamento Local Association, has already prepared several actions to be taken once the law is published:
It already possesses detailed legal opinions from the Abreu lawyers firm regarding the package as a whole, the CEAL tax in particular, and the application of this housing law within European Union legal directives. These documents can be viewed at the following link, although they are very technical and, of course, in Portuguese:
https://www.naomatemoal.pt/PARECERESJURIDICOS
Since several possible unconstitutional measures have been identified, ALEP is in talks with the PSD political party to apply for what is known as “análise sucessiva” (literally, successive analysis) by the Constitutional Court. This particular action is only possible when the challenged law is already in effect, and has to be requested by the PSD as the only opposition party with sufficient number of seats in Parliament to be able to take this action.
ALEP has also prepared a complaint to the European Commission, after consulting with Nuno Melo, President of the CDS, and European MP. This could be actioned almost immediately after the law comes into effect.
If you are an Alojamento local owner, consider joining ALEP from just €88/year which includes the obligatory civil responsibility insurance for AL properties:
