The first party costs a fine. The second can cost the licence.

The licence is what is at stake, not the fine

Buying tourist plazas is still suspended in Ibiza, so a villa that loses its DRIAT will struggle to get one back. Our guide on what you need to let your villa to tourists explains why. That is why one serious fine is a scare and a second is something else. In our experience as managers, neighbour complaints are the main way an Ibiza villa puts its licence at risk. That is an operator's view, not a statistic.

The contract and the 24 hours

Article 50.12 of Ley 8/2012, as reworded by Ley 1/2025, requires the marketer to state expressly, in the contract signed with the guests, that parties or events breaking the basic rules of convivencia are prohibited, and in a building under propiedad horizontal, anything breaching the community statutes. Once aware of a disturbance, the marketer must require the guest to leave within 24 hours at most. The same article adds that the owner's knowledge is only presumed where there is clear evidence the owner was told or consented.

Read it next to article 117.4: the owner, the marketer and any tenant are liable "salvo prueba en contrario", unless proved otherwise. Our reading is that the contract with the clause, the incident log and your manager's written procedure are exactly that proof. And the 24-hour phone line article 51.3 already requires costs little more if your nearest neighbours have it too: not compulsory for a detached villa, but the cheapest measure there is.

Two steps to losing the DRIAT

Step one, serious. Leaving the ban out of the contract, or failing to take adequate measures when guests seriously disturb the neighbours, is a serious infringement (art. 119.ac): a fine of 5.001 to 50.000 euros and, as an accessory, temporary suspension or closure (art. 123.2). Even before a sanction is final, the administration can provisionally suspend the DRIAT or close the home (art. 128.1).

Step two, very serious. Committing another serious infringement within twelve months of a final sanction for a serious one is very serious (art. 120.h): 50.001 to 500.000 euros and, as accessories, loss of effect of the DRIAT or temporary or permanent closure (art. 123.3). Serious infringements lapse after two years (art. 121.1), and repeat offences in that window raise the fine (art. 124).

The other route: the noise ordinance

In Sant Josep de sa Talaia night runs from 23:00 to 08:00 and the outdoor limit in residential areas is 45 dB(A). Exceeding it by 6 to 15 dB(A), or disturbing convivencia, is serious: 601 to 12.000 euros and temporary closure of up to two years; over 15 dB(A) is very serious, up to 300.000 euros (arts. 33 and 34 of the ordinance). In July 2022 Santa Eulària temporarily closed a licensed rural villa after measuring 67 dB at a party and proposed fines for four responsible parties (noudiari, 23 July 2022). A municipal noise sanction is not by itself a serious infringement under Ley 8/2012, but it is the evidence a Consell inspector would use.

How a complaint reaches the Consell

Ley 1/2025 added a twenty-seventh additional provision to Ley 8/2012 letting the Consells and town halls agree protocols to pass marketers' details to the Policía Local and send complaints about disturbances to the tourism authority. On 9 October 2026 the Policía Local of Eivissa and Consell inspectors checked 49 homes near avenida 8 de Agosto after numerous anonymous complaints to the Línea Verde (noudiari, 9 October 2026). They were flats, not villas, but the mechanism is the same.

What "adequate measures" looks like in a villa

Prepared guests are calmer guests. The house rules are set before booking, repeated before arrival and recalled inside the villa, with a named person who answers at two in the morning. The nearest neighbours have that number. The 24-hour departure is rehearsed: who tells the guest, in writing, and what the contract allows on the deposit.

That covers the paperwork. The rest is how the villa itself is set up, so that being quiet is the easy choice. We know this from our own villas. One of ours was fined three times for noise in 2021. Since then we have fitted a noise display and timed outdoor lights, and it has not had a complaint or a fine in any season since. We also run a third measure in villas we work with, and we are adding it to our own for 2027.

A noise display outside. A large-screen decibel meter, mounted outside where the terrace can see it, switched on at sunset and off at sunrise by a smart switch that follows the sunset time through the year. Guests see how loud they are and turn it down without anyone asking. Some models also log the level against date and time. It measures volume, not words, so nothing anyone says is recorded. The log gives the owner a dated record to set against a complaint, including one made on a night the level never passed the limit.

Outdoor lights that go off by the hour. From midnight the outdoor lights switch off area by area, and by about one in the morning the terraces are dark. Nobody is told to go inside. The garden simply stops being the place to be.

A connected monitor that speaks to the guest. A connected noise sensor, mounted outside and linked to the booking system. The owner sets the level and the hours. If they are crossed, the device flashes and the guest gets a message on the booking platform or a phone call, before a neighbour has a reason to pick up theirs. It records no sound, and its reports become the dated incident log this guide keeps coming back to.

None of these confronts a guest, which is why they work. Each is also something an owner can show: what was in place, since when and how it runs. A villa's licence now rests on what the owner can show was ready before the first guest arrived.

One condition: guests must be told. Airbnb allows noise decibel monitors only if they measure the level without recording or transmitting sound, the listing discloses them, and none sits in a bedroom, bathroom or sleeping area. Put the same line in the house rules on every channel.

The low season is the time to do it. We assess a villa the way we set up our own: the contract, the house rules, what the neighbours hear and what is fitted outside. You get a written report of what it needs, we supply the equipment, and your electrician fits it before the 2027 season. See what we fit and what it costs.

Checking it from your own papers

Take last season's bookings and check, channel by channel, whether the guest accepted a contract carrying the party ban. Then write one line for every incident in the last two years, the lapse and repeat-offence window: date, time, who called, who answered, minutes to response and outcome. Look for the pattern by booking type, week and group size. And note any municipal report or Consell file and whether it is final, because only a final sanction opens the twelve-month window.

What this guide does not cover

It does not cover flats and community statutes in detail (our note on community consent does), the noise ordinances of Sant Antoni, Santa Eulària, Sant Joan or Vila, the new night-lighting reglamento, civil or criminal action by neighbours, or guest registration, insurance and safety equipment. We could not confirm whether a ban in Airbnb's or Vrbo's own terms satisfies article 50.12 or whether a clause of your own is needed: ask your abogado. Nor do we know of any Ibiza villa that has lost its DRIAT this way. It assesses no particular property.

This guide is our own research and our reading of the subject, published for educational purposes only. It is not legal or tax advice: it describes the rules as we understand them and names the papers that answer the question, it assesses no particular property, and reading it creates no professional relationship. Take what you find to your own abogado, tax adviser or administrador de fincas.