How to meet AL obligations in Portugal

Check the AL registration number, the address, the council and any zone-specific rules before you accept bookings.

Keep receipts, emergency contacts, the guest information book and your operational documents in one archive.

Ask for the essential details before arrival and fill any gaps early, so you are never preparing official files in a rush.

Once the details are confirmed, generate the file for SIBA — the guest reporting system run by the UCFE, inside the Sistema de Segurança Interna — and keep proof of submission in the property history.

Sweep through open items, expired documents and recurring tasks, so nothing rests on memory or a loose sheet of paper.

In force since 1 November 2024. It revoked registration expiry and renewals and the blanket freeze on new registrations. It also repealed paragraphs 2 to 4 of article 7 of DL 128/2014, which made the registration personal and non-transferable: under national law, a sale or transfer no longer extinguishes the registration. The mayor may order a registration cancelled, after a prior hearing (article 9). A condominium can oppose an AL with over 50% of the building share, after mediation. The CEAL levy was not abolished by this decree: that was done by Decree-Law 57/2024 of 10 September, with effect as at 31 December 2023.

Verified on 14 September 2026. Decreto-Lei n.º 76/2024, of 23 October — Diário da República, 1st series, no. 206

Councils that had passed a thousand registered establishments by 31 December 2025 have until 31 December 2026 to resolve on drawing up or amending their AL regulation — to resolve, not to have the regulation in force. A suspension of new registrations may be extended exceptionally and once only, never beyond that date.

Lisbon’s Municipal AL Regulation, as amended by Aviso n.º 29926-A/2025/2 (in effect since 6 December 2025), sets absolute containment areas (ratio of 10% or more), where new registrations are not admitted except as authorised by the City Council, and relative containment areas (5% to 10%), where they need exceptional authorisation. In these areas the regulation provides that transferring a «moradia» or «apartamento» registration makes it lapse, subject to the exceptions in national law — which only allows limits on the transferability of new registration numbers (article 15-B of DL 128/2014). The Council may update the classification of parishes and neighbourhoods from its monthly monitoring of the ratios: check the property’s before deciding.

Verified on 14 September 2026. Aviso n.º 29926-A/2025/2 — Diário da República, 2nd series, no. 235, supplement

Portaria 248/2021 requires civil liability insurance of at least €75,000, with up-to-date proof filed via gov.pt. In Lisbon, the City Council completed in January 2026 the cancellation of 6,765 registrations that had not reported their civil liability insurance.

Verified on 14 September 2026. Written report of the Mayor of Lisbon to the Municipal Assembly (December 2025 to January 2026)

Foreign guests are reported at siba.ssi.gov.pt (now under the UCFE, inside the internal security system) within 3 working days of check-in, and again within 3 working days of check-out. Under article 203 of Law 23/2007 the fine is banded by how many bulletins are missing: €100–500 (1 to 10), €200–900 (11 to 50) and €400–2,000 (more than 51); merely negligent lateness cuts both limits to a quarter.

DL 35/2025 raised the article 53 VAT exemption to €15,000; accommodation is at the reduced 6% rate and invoicing must use certified software. The monthly INE survey (WebInq) is due by day 10, zero months included.