ISSN 2184-8793 ISSNe 2975-9056 of the use of the property or fraction. Until 2014, article 3.1 of Portaria no. 517/2008 only stated that unless installed in properties built prior to 7 August 1951, the registration of local accommodation establishments presupposed authorization of use or a valid title of use for the property the confirmation of which was a on charge of the Municipality of the respective area. With the reform carried out in 2004, article 6.1.a) now requires that the mere prior notification includes information on the property's use authorization or valid title and that the statement of responsibility, signed by the establishment's owner, must expressly state that the "suitability of the building or its autonomous fraction for the provision of accommodation services is ensured, and that it complies with the applicable legal and regulatory norms", which implies that the building’s permit of use is valid. Being a typical access requirement of administrative law, which requires, for the safeguard of public interests, that the competent authorities supervise the safety and salubriousness of constructions, this requirement aims to ensure that the property in question has all the basic characteristics that allow the use of the building for the exploration of the local accommodation activity. To this study it is important to examine the existing debate in Portuguese literature and jurisprudence on the question of the local accommodation properties’ use nature, its reflection in the mandatory requirements for the activity and the safeguarding of the neighbours' rights. As there is no consensus as to whether the exploitation of the local accommodation activity embodies the exercise of a service provision with commercial characteristics or a residential use of the property, this divergence is reflected in Portuguese doctrine and jurisprudence regarding the nature of the permit of use required for this activity. We believe, with a major part of Portuguese literature7 , that the legislator does not demand that local accommodation should operate in properties or fractions with a specific use authorization, which expressly admits the activity in question. This is an activity expressly classified by law as the provision of services - temporary accommodation services to tourists - which, if the legislator had not determined anything in this respect, could only be installed and run-in buildings or fractions with average authorisation of use for services. The only thing the legislator requires in this respect 7 Oliveira, Passinhas and Lopes, 2017, pp. 32 and 33.
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