Editor’s note: This article was first published in February 2012. It reports news about a planned reform. It appears to have been enacted by Royal Decree-law 19/2012 and Law 12/2012, and the 300 m² limit was later raised to 750 m² in 2013, so the rules described are not current.
Good news for entrepreneurs who are planning to open a business but are put off by long, tiresome red tape. The Government will replace the municipal opening permit with a responsible declaration (declaración responsable, a signed statement of compliance) by the entrepreneur and a technical report.
The municipal licence to open a shop is a system that has become outdated, so from June entrepreneurs in any province of Spain who want to open a business will no longer have to ask the town hall for permission. This removes a procedure that today can delay the opening of a new business by an average of between six months and a year.
This licence causes delays that hold back the creation of new jobs, as well as investment by the self-employed. With the reform, the procedure will be replaced by checks carried out “after the fact”.
To open a business of up to 300 square metres, whether in a city or a village, a simple responsible declaration by the entrepreneur stating that they comply with current regulations will be enough, together with a technical report by an expert (an architect or industrial engineer) certifying that the premises are fit to open.
The entrepreneur will only need to submit these documents to the town hall and pay the municipal fees. From that moment on, they can open the business and start serving customers. This will cut the red tape for opening a new business to a few days or, at most, a few weeks.
Afterwards, an official will visit the business and inspect whether it meets all the planning, health, environmental and other requirements…
If any of these requirements are not met, that’s when the entrepreneur will have to get the chequebook out to pay a hefty fine.
The only condition for benefiting from this reform will be that the business is owned by an SME, so large stores and shopping centres will not be included, although franchises will.
Featured image: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
