It's the most common fight between hosts and co-ownerships in Colombia. The law neither bans short-term rentals nor authorizes them in the abstract: it delegates the decision to your building's horizontal property bylaws. Here's what your assembly can and can't do, what majority it needs, and something almost no host knows: your administrator has a legal duty to report you to the SIC.
Start for free with RapitraYes, your co-ownership can ban it — if it does so properly. Law 675 of 2001 lets the bylaws limit the designated use of private units, and the Constitutional Court has upheld that such restrictions are valid to preserve community life. What an administrator or council cannot do is ban it on their own: that's the assembly's call, by amending the bylaws.
Under Law 2068 of 2020 and Decreto 1836 de 2021, providing tourist accommodation in a horizontal-property building requires all three at once. Miss one and you're not authorized:
The horizontal property bylaws define the designated use of each private unit. If they say "residential" and prohibit commercial or tourist uses, that's the rule that binds you.
Your municipality's POT defines which uses are compatible in your area. Even if your bylaws are silent, if tourist use isn't allowed under zoning, you can't either.
The National Tourism Registry is mandatory for every lodging provider and is filed per property: the apartment you are renting out needs its own. Without it you can't operate legally, with or without the co-ownership's permission.
Amending the horizontal property bylaws is one of the decisions requiring a qualified majority: Article 46 of Law 675 of 2001 demands the favorable vote of 70% of the co-ownership coefficients of the building or complex.
It's not 70% of those attending the assembly: it's 70% of the coefficients of the entire co-ownership
An administrator, an administrative council, or a memo CANNOT ban it on their own
Nor is a simple-majority assembly vote enough when the goal is amending the bylaws
If the bylaws already banned it when you bought, that restriction binds you from the start
There's no settled answer here, and anyone who tells you otherwise is oversimplifying. Two positions are defended by lawyers in Colombia:
If the bylaws don't prohibit it, it can't be prohibited by interpretation. Nobody can restrict property rights based on silence, least of all an administrator acting unilaterally. On this reading, silence enables you until the assembly amends the bylaws.
Silence isn't tacit authorization. Since tourist accommodation is a different use from residential, and the rule requires the designated use to be set out in the bylaws, express permission would be needed. On this reading, bylaws that only say "residential" don't cover tourist use.
What to do about it: if your bylaws are silent, don't assume you're covered — or barred. Request the bylaws in writing, check the literal designated use of your unit, and consult a horizontal-property lawyer before investing in the business. It's cheaper than a dispute with the co-ownership.
Article 144 of Decreto 2106 de 2019, which amended Article 34 of Law 1558 of 2012, imposes on horizontal-property administrators the duty to report to the Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio when tourist accommodation is provided in their building and:
the bylaws do not authorize that use, or
the unit is not registered in the National Tourism Registry
And it isn't optional for them: an administrator who fails to report faces a fine of up to 3 monthly minimum wages, payable to the Tourism Promotion Fund. In other words, your administrator has a direct legal incentive to report you — it isn't personal. The best defense is simple: hold a valid RNT and have your designated use in order.
If you breach the bylaws, Article 59 of Law 675 of 2001 allows monetary penalties, provided they're set out in the law or the bylaws themselves:
Successive fines for as long as the breach continues
Each fine cannot exceed 2 times the monthly common expenses charged to you
The sum of all of them cannot exceed 10 times those monthly expenses
The administrator enforces them, under Article 61
Mind the order of magnitude: these are community-living penalties, not MinCIT or Migración Colombia fines. You can end up paying both for different facts — the co-ownership for breaching the bylaws, and the State for operating without an RNT or failing to report TRA and SIRE.
There have been several attempts to flip this rule. Bills 205 and 282 of 2022 sought to make short-term rentals permitted by default in all horizontal property, unless the assembly banned them with 70% of coefficients. They were archived in March 2024. Bill 397 of 2024 was then filed with a similar approach, and as of late 2025 was still moving through Congress.
None of this is law yet. Until one passes, the rule in force is the one explained above: your co-ownership's bylaws govern. Before making decisions based on "the law is about to change", check the bill's actual status — these have been stalling for years.
Request a copy of the horizontal property bylaws and look for "destinación" in the private-units section
Check whether later assembly minutes have amended that point
Ask your city hall whether tourist use is compatible with the zoning for your area
File for the RNT: without it you're not authorized even with the co-ownership's blessing
If the bylaws are silent, get a lawyer's opinion before investing
If you want to change them, be ready to secure 70% of the coefficients in an assembly
No software authorizes you before your co-ownership: if your bylaws prohibit tourist use, the problem is legal and gets solved in the assembly, not with technology. That said, once your bylaws and RNT are in order, the obligations that repeat with every guest begin — the TRA with MinCIT and the SIRE with Migración Colombia. That's exactly what Rapitra automates, and it's also what keeps you clean with respect to the report your administrator must file with the SIC.
Automate TRA and SIRE with RapitraNo. Restricting the designated use of private units requires amending the horizontal property bylaws, and only the assembly can do that with 70% of the coefficients (Article 46 of Law 675 of 2001). An administrator's memo or a council decision doesn't carry that weight.
There's no settled answer. One position holds that what isn't prohibited can't be banned by interpretation; another holds that tourist use requires express authorization and silence isn't enough. Before investing, check the literal designated use of your unit and consult a horizontal-property lawyer.
Yes, if breaching the bylaws is set out as sanctionable. Article 59 caps each fine at 2 times your monthly common expenses, and the cumulative total at 10 times. These are separate from MinCIT or Migración Colombia penalties.
Yes. Article 144 of Decreto 2106 de 2019 requires them to report tourist accommodation when the bylaws don't authorize it or the unit lacks an RNT. If they don't, they themselves face a fine of up to 3 monthly minimum wages.
Not yet. The 2022 bills proposing it were archived in March 2024, and Bill 397 of 2024 was still in Congress as of late 2025. Until one passes, your co-ownership's bylaws govern.
Then what comes next is complying for every guest. Rapitra transmits the TRA and the SIRE automatically for each booking. Free 30-day trial, no card.
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