The Ministry of Consumer Affairs has opened a sanctioning file against a “large real estate company,” whose name has not been disclosed but is detailed as “renting thousands of homes,” according to the department headed by Pablo Bustinduy. The procedure, which began a few weeks ago, investigates various violations, such as imposing a non-payment insurance on the tenant or applying disproportionate penalties for each day of delay in handing over the property. With this action, the Consumer Affairs department maintains pressure on real estate companies, after imposing a fine of 3.6 million euros last April on the company Alquiler Seguro, also for carrying out “abusive practices” against its clients.
In recent years, the ministry has been conducting thorough monitoring of the activity of real estate agencies and evaluating their behavior with tenants. In this new case, the details that have emerged indicate that it is “a large real estate company that rents thousands of homes in various cities across the country.” The company has apartments spread across several autonomous communities. “We cannot provide the name of the company while the procedure is open,” a ministry spokesperson acknowledges to this media outlet.
What the department of Bustinduy does detail are the four potential violations this company may have committed: imposing non-payment insurance on the tenant; including a clause recognizing individualized negotiation of the adhesion contract; imposing a disproportionate penalty for each day of delay in handing over the property; and including a clause that imposes unjustified expenses and penalties on the tenant related to supply equipment and the change of ownership of the same.
According to the established scales, each of these violations could be considered an abusive clause and entail fines of up to one million euros each (which would total four million in fines), or an amount equivalent to between six and eight times the illicit profit obtained by the company through these clauses.
Despite the opening of the sanctioning file, the Directorate General of Consumer Affairs reminds that the initiation of these investigations does not prejudge the final outcome. Just over a month ago, it ratified the 3.6 million euro fine initially imposed on the company Alquiler Seguro after closing the file it opened in March 2025 following a series of complaints filed by various consumer organizations.
That investigation confirmed the use of systematic abusive practices against tenants, such as the mandatory imposition of additional services—especially a tenant support service and insurance—to access the property, as well as charging undue expenses and including contractual clauses considered illegal. The ministry then considered that the company, which manages about 26,000 homes, took advantage of its market position to violate basic consumer rights. Despite the ruling, the company has announced it will appeal to the courts to defend itself against these accusations and overturn the hefty financial penalty, and has shown various rulings in related cases where the courts ruled in their favor.
Continuous monitoring
However, the highest fine imposed so far by Consumer Affairs has been directed at the company Airbnb, for irregularities in publishing rental listings for tourists. Here, the imposed amount reaches up to 64 million euros, which according to Consumer Affairs “is six times the illicit profit” obtained by Airbnb as a result of these bad practices. In this case, there is already an order from the Madrid High Court of Justice requiring the company to make this payment, although it has announced it will continue fighting in the courts.
On the other hand, real estate portals have not escaped Consumer Affairs’ control either, which has opened files against some of them for including listings with prices above the legal limits established in pressured areas, or for not including all mandatory information, such as the price of the previous contract. These investigations, however, remain open and, for now, have not resulted in sanctions.
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