Presence of illegal Bali villas in Badung, the regency on the south coast of Bali where most of the island’s main tourism centers are located, is getting more problematic. From construction taking up farming land, violation to land zoning allocation, to various security issues. The main reason is lack of control and supervision by the authority.

There are 111 Bali villas in Badung facing closure threat by the regency’s house of representatives for not having proper license, out of which 81 have started to apply for proper paperwork to the tourism office before the deadline of August 29th expired. Strangely, the remaining 30 which so far did not show signs of good will, at the moment are classified as mysterious. Meanwhile under Denpasar capital administration, there are 60 villas do not have proper license yet.

Sudden inspection by the tourism office found unclear identification and location of the 30 villas in question. Even their actual status – commercial villa accommodation or private residence – remained in question. However I Made Subawa, the head of Badung tourism office expressed his commitment to take strict action should violation to regulation identified later on. The tourism office identify the tendency that owners hide commercial operation of their villas behind private residential status. Location-wise the tourism office has identified North Kuta and Mengwi. Effort to chase these villas remains in force. In addition to the house of representatives which announced closure threat, being ignored, the tourism office also announce similar threat should any of these 30 villas proven to have commercial operation.

In Tabanan regency, presence of illegal Bali villas have not yet fully cleared out as well. Based on the fact that their presence has caused various problem without delivering any income to local government, about a year ago tourism office of Tabanan has recorded presence of illegal villas throughout the regency. After a year without any further action, new construction of illegal villas started to take place both along the coastline as well as the hillside with beautiful views. Strangely many of them have started construction before required permits issued.

Facts shown that there are private residences rented out to forreigners, private residences modified for accommodation, and villas with residential license accomodating tourists, all of which paid no contribution to government income. Tabanan house of representatives has once made sudden inspection to villas suspected having illegal commercial operation, unfortunately no follow up has been taken. Tabanan govenment indicated that a number of villas have started to apply for proper licenses.

In Denpasar villas are located not only in tourist area but also within local residential areas, forcing Denpsar tourism office to take extra effort to identify them. Head of Denpasar tourism office I Putu Budiasa confirmed that there are at least 60 illegal villas in the area which at the moment have been given chance to apply for legal licenses. Admitting that Denpasar does not have specific rule to regulate private villas, license for their commercial operation are classified into either lodging or small hostel depending on their number of bedrooms. Up to five is classified into lodging. More than five classified into small hostel.

Whist Budiasa told that most Bali villas in Denpasar are located in tourist areas, he also identified that almost all are registered on the name of local residents. However he did not explicitly mentioned presence of foreign owners behind.