Changes in the Spanish Rent Law. New rules

The entry into force on the 6^th of June of the Law 4/2013 on the reform of the Law for Urban Rents, expects to invigorate the rental housing market in Spain, a country that has one of the lowest rental rate of the European countries, as compared with the traditional option of the purchase of the housing.

Several experts note that the modifications, which have been introduced in the leases law, are not going to change this situation nor will allow a flexibility of the rental market.

The principal changes are:

• The freedom of covenant is promoted; the will of the parties concerned is a priority.
• It is possible to come to an agreement on the terms as both parties wish. The parties establish the duration of the rental freely. If it is less than three years, once the expiration date of the contract arrives, it must be renewed by annual instalments up to a minimum duration of three years, instead of the actual five. The tacit renewal, at the expiration of the contract, is reduced from three to one year.
• The income revision will not be obligatorily done in the basis of the IPC, but the freedom of covenant between the parties is established in this matter.
• The possibility for the landlord to recuperate the property to devoted it to permanent dwelling is established, when it is demanded for its own or the family’s use, if the first year of duration of the contract has already passed, and having communicated it to the tenant with two months beforehand.
• The tenant can withdraw from the contract in any moment, once at least six months have passed and it has been communicated to the landlord with a minimum advance of 30 days. A compensation of an instalment can be agreed by every yearly period remaining to fulfil.
• If the rented flat is sold, the new buyer is only obliged to respect the contract in case it is registered in the Properties Register.
• Works: the obligation of the rental payment can be totally or partially replaced by the commitment of the tenant to reform or restore the property.
• The dwellings rented temporarily with touristic purposes are excluded from these regulations.
• A debtors’ register in which the sentences of evict for non-payment will be inscribed is created.

These measures seek that more people have access to rentals and more landlords decide to rent their housings, even though the insistence on the rule by which the landlord can recuperate the dwelling with a simple prior notice of two months to the tenant, only creates uncertainty and instability to people or families who wish to live from hiring. The mistrust of landlords in case of non-payment of the rents and the delay of the eviction judicial processes are not solved by these new regulations either.

The information contained in this article does not constitute legal advice.