Control and sanction of the residence obligation

As part of the Agreement on better conditions for growth and proper payment of taxes in the platform economy, the government, the Social Democrats, the DF and the So-cial Liberal Party want to strengthen municipalities’ ability to enforce the rules for short-term leasing.

The background to the proposal is that municipalities are facing difficulties when enforcing the residence obligation, as the municipalities lack instruments to identify owners of vacant houses or houses used for temporary purposes.

Bill

The bill intends to provide the municipalities with effective tools to ensure that all year-round residences in the municipality are actually used for all-year-round occupation. In order to identify the owners of the residences in question, an explicit legal basis is established for the integration of the CPR-register, the BBR register and the Central Municipal Property Registry (ESR).

In addition, the bill makes it possible to seek out specific households on the property and the proposal also makes it possible to obtain information from utility companies concerning the consumption of electricity, heat, water and gas by a household for a certain period of time, as consumption can be used as an indicator of the existence of year-round occupation.

Principle # 4 consistency across authorities — uniform concepts and reuse of data

From the proposed regulation, it is stated that existing registers in the form of the CPR register, the BBR register and the ESR can be integrated (Section 52d), which will help to facilitate the control of the residence requirement. By providing a legal basis for matching existing registers, the legislative proposal demonstrates how the management of new policy measures can be supported by existing data.

Access to data on the domestic consumption of electricity, water, heat and gas during a certain period of time demonstrates in the same way how data can be efficiently reused.

Principle# 5 on safe and secure data management 

The proposed act includes consideration of safe and secure data management by stressing that access to citizens’ utility information can only be given on a case-by-case basis and only for a certain period (Section 52e number 1).

The bill also includes consideration of the fact that the information collected from the utility companies is not personal, as they include the identification of the names, addresses and the consumption of electricity, water, heat and gas (p. 3). Considerations such as these underpin how the legislative proposal takes into account the need for secure data processing.

Principle# 7 on how legislation should prevent fraud and errors

The integration of data from the CPR, the BBR and the ESR registers as well as the use of information from utility companies as a basis for verification of the residence obligation, demonstrate how existing registers as well as information provided by a third party can be effectively used to support the control of the residence obligation in accordance with principle# 7.

Effects and consequences

The Ministry considers that the legislative proposal has no economic consequences as it allows for a better performance of the municipalities’ control of residence obligation.

Furthermore, it is considered that the legislative proposal does not entail any administrative consequences for the public authorities, as there are no formal requirements for the municipalities’ administration of the rules.

Conclusion

The legislative proposal on the control and sanction of the residence obligation is a good example of how several principles of digitisation-ready legislation can be incorporated into concrete legislative proposals. By re-using existing register data and information from utility companies, the coherence across the public sector is strengthened in accordance to principle #4.

Principle # 5 on safe and secure data processing is also supported, as the legislative proposal ensures that access to information on utility can only be given in individual cases and may only cover a certain period of time. This addresses citizens’ confidence in the use of data by the public authorities.

Finally, the proposal demonstrates how data can be used effectively for control purposes, which contribute to the fight and prevention of fraud and errors in accordance with principle #7.