Letting short-term in Veysonnaz: regulations and permits

No registration number in Valais - but a municipality to identify

Let us begin by ruling out a false trail that costs many owners a great deal of time: there is no unified cantonal registration number in Valais, of the kind some European cities require to be displayed on listings. Searching for "the Valais Airbnb registration number" leads nowhere, because no such thing exists.

The real framework has three tiers. At federal level, the Lex Weber governs the designated use of second homes. At cantonal level, the Tourism Act of 9 February 1996 and its ordinance of 10 December 2014 establish the tourism taxes and entrust their collection to the municipalities. At municipal level, finally, the municipality of Veysonnaz has adopted its implementing regulation on tourist taxes, approved by the municipal council on 3 October 2016, adopted by the primary assembly on 12 December 2016 and ratified by the Cantonal Government (Conseil d'État) on 11 January 2017. A regulation on the tourism promotion tax was ratified shortly before, on 30 November 2016.

But in Veysonnaz, before even reading a regulation, you have to answer a preliminary question that most owners never ask themselves.

The tourism area: one destination, three municipalities

The Veysonnaz tourism area (giron touristique) extends across three municipalities: Veysonnaz, Nendaz and Sion (formerly Salins). This configuration is the product of the resort's development history and it has a very concrete consequence: the name of the resort in your listing tells you nothing about the regulation that applies to you. A chalet sold, let and lived in as a Veysonnaz property may, cadastrally, stand on Nendaz or Sion territory.

The differences are not cosmetic. The Veysonnaz regulation sets rates by category of accommodation and an annual flat rate calculated on the number of rooms; the Nendaz regulation rests on a tourist zoning and on the gross floor area of the property. The declaration deadlines differ too. An owner applying the neighbouring municipality's rules in good faith ends up, depending on the case, undercharging his guests or declaring late.

The check takes a few minutes: a cadastral extract, or a simple call to the municipal administration. It is done once and for all, before the first night, and it then determines everything else - whom you notify, at what rate you charge, on what dates you declare, to whom you pay. If your property comes under Nendaz, it is our guide to the regulations in Nendaz that you should follow. We have also devoted an article to the contrast between the Valais model, entirely municipal, and the Vaud model, which works on a different logic: declaring your short-term rental in Valais and in the canton of Vaud.

Your practical obligations, in order

First, notify. Before the property is first let, the host makes himself known to the municipal authority and the tourist office - in Veysonnaz, Veysonnaz Tourisme, route de Magrappé 42. This notification allows the municipality to know that a property is being operated, to determine the applicable tax regime and to send you the declaration documents. Since 2017, collection has been carried out by the municipality of Veysonnaz itself for properties on its territory, and no longer by the Société de Développement - even though the regulation allows the municipality to delegate that task to it.

Second, declare the overnight stays. The regulation adopts a seasonal rhythm for holiday accommodation: hosts report to the collecting body, on a form issued by that body, the number of overnight stays achieved by 30 April for the winter season and by 31 October for the summer season. Other providers of accommodation declare at the end of every month. Two deadlines a year: that is very few, which also explains why they are easily forgotten.

Third, collect the tourist tax and then remit it. Those liable are the guests who spend the night in the municipality without being domiciled there - but whoever provides the accommodation is responsible for collecting and paying it over, failing which he is personally liable. If you have not charged it to the guest, the municipality will claim it from you all the same. Rates by category, the annual flat rate calculated on the number of rooms and the detailed procedure: we have devoted a full guide to them, the tourist tax in Veysonnaz.

Fourth - and this is the one that gets forgotten - the second tax. Alongside the tourist tax, the tourism promotion tax is levied on natural and legal persons carrying on a self-employed activity who derive a benefit from tourism, which expressly includes owners who let their property, in the municipalities of Veysonnaz and Nendaz. On the Sion part of the tourism area, the equivalent is called the accommodation tax. It is not charged to the guest: it falls on the activity, and its proceeds are earmarked for promoting the destination within the meaning of article 30 of the Valais Tourism Act.

Declaring nothing exposes you to an assessment by default

Many second-home owners in Veysonnaz let for a few weeks a year to acquaintances, or through a platform, without ever having informed the municipality. In a village of a few hundred inhabitants the reasoning looks risk-free - it is less and less so, and for a reason that lies in the text itself.

The regulation provides that where the debtor of a tax does not supply the information needed for taxation or does not pay the amount on time, the municipal council proceeds, after an unsuccessful formal reminder, to an assessment by default. That assessment is equivalent to an enforceable judgment within the meaning of article 80 of the Federal Debt Enforcement and Bankruptcy Act, and the debtor assessed by default bears the costs he has caused. The risk is therefore not a reminder to behave: it is a retroactive recovery covering the seasons during which the property was operated without being declared.

Two useful qualifications. First, there is a right of appeal: any administrative decision may be the subject of a reasoned objection to the municipal council within 30 days, and then of an appeal to the Cantonal Government (Conseil d'État). Second, and above all, voluntary regularisation is almost always straightforward to obtain. An owner who comes forward of his own accord is not in the same position as one who is asked to account for himself. In a resort where everyone knows everyone, the step is also a matter of good neighbourly relations.

Flat rate or per-night tax: the Veysonnaz point of vigilance

Veysonnaz has a very high proportion of second homes occupied a few weeks a year, and the regulation reserves a particular regime for them that deserves careful reading. The owner liable for the tax and the user of the holiday accommodation who occupy it themselves, as well as the long-term tenant, pay the tax in the form of an annual flat rate, calculated on an average occupancy of 45 nights and on the number of household units attached to the number of rooms. That flat rate covers every night spent in the property, including occasional lettings.

Set against that, the regulation states that holiday accommodation let commercially is not covered by the flat-rate system. But the article that establishes the flat rate targets, in its very heading, holiday accommodation "not let exclusively on a commercial basis". The dividing line therefore does not run between letting and not letting, but between exclusively commercial operation and mixed use - by far the most frequent case in the resort.

In concrete terms: coming to ski for two weeks in February, lending the apartment to your children at Easter and letting it for the rest of the season is mixed use, and therefore falls under the annual flat rate. Knowing which regime you are in, declaring it to the municipality and being able to document it avoids the two symmetrical mistakes we come across regularly: paying a flat rate and charging the per-night tax to your guests without realising it, or paying nothing at all in the belief that you are in commercial letting.

Lex Weber, mayens and the historic building stock

The federal act on second homes, known as the Lex Weber, caps the share of second homes per municipality at 20%. Veysonnaz far exceeds that threshold, like the great majority of Valais tourist municipalities: the construction of new "classic" second homes has been frozen there since 2013. For an owner, the first consequence is economic - supply is structurally limited, which supports the value of the existing stock.

The second is legal: the Lex Weber does not prohibit short-term letting. It governs the creation and the designated use of homes, not their rental use. Properties built or authorised before the freeze benefit from acquired rights and can be let freely; some more recent properties were authorised on condition of being designated for tourist accommodation, in which case letting is not a right but an obligation, entered in the land register. The right reflex is therefore to think in terms of designated use, and to have the exact status of the property verified.

In Veysonnaz there is a further issue that you do not encounter in resorts built in one go: that of the mayens and the historic building stock. The upper village retains its old chalets and its raccards, and the renovated mayens around the village - a mayen being a traditional Valais alpine barn converted into accommodation - form a sought-after rental segment. These properties may be subject to constraints of their own: a location outside the building zone for some, restrictions linked to their original agricultural use, conservation requirements bearing on volumes, materials or openings. The municipality is moreover carrying out an inventory of the built heritage. Before buying, renovating or even installing an access device visible on a façade, the question needs putting to the municipal technical department - and it needs putting beforehand, not afterwards.

Co-ownership, subletting, insurance

A significant part of the stock in Magrappé and the resort centre consists of apartments in co-ownership (condominium). Some co-ownership rules regulate short-term letting, the use of the ski room or the parking spaces, or even the installation of devices on common parts - a point that comes up systematically when it is a matter of fitting a key safe or changing a lock. Reading those rules before publishing a listing avoids neighbourhood conflicts that are hard to undo afterwards, particularly in a village where the co-owners run into one another every winter.

If you are a tenant rather than an owner, the logic changes: subletting requires the landlord's prior consent (art. 262 CO). Subletting without that consent exposes you to termination of the lease, whatever steps you may otherwise have taken with the municipality. The two obligations are cumulative.

That leaves insurance, almost always overlooked. A household and building policy taken out for private use generally does not cover rental activity: in the event of damage caused by a guest, the insurer may reduce or refuse its performance if the rental use was not declared. Three covers deserve examining: damage caused by tenants, the landlord's civil liability and, depending on the case, loss of rental income. Platform protections are a complement, never a substitute for a suitable Swiss policy. Finally, rental income is taxable and must appear in your tax return.

Letting legally in Veysonnaz: the 6 steps

This information is provided for guidance only and reflects the state of the applicable framework at the time of writing, on the basis of the municipal regulation published by the municipality of Veysonnaz. Municipal regulations evolve and practices may vary from one municipality of the tourism area to another. For any particular situation - and in particular to determine the competent municipality or the tax regime applicable to your property - refer to the municipality of Veysonnaz, to Veysonnaz Tourisme or to legal counsel.

What our concierge service takes care of

For every property we manage in Veysonnaz, compliance is part of the service: determining the competent municipality within the tourism area, verifying the property's status when it enters management, notification to the municipality and the tourist office, a documented choice of tax regime, collection of the tourist tax from guests across all channels - platforms and direct bookings alike - overnight-stay statements submitted by the deadlines of 30 April and 31 October, monitoring of the tourism promotion tax, retention of supporting documents and ongoing regulatory monitoring. You receive your income, your Veysonnaz concierge service carries the administrative burden, within our all-inclusive rental management, charged at 25% of the net amount collected after deduction of platform fees, transaction fees and cleaning.