Mon, 15 March 2010
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There's plenty that potential tenants should be aware of when renting an apartment or house. Here's a guide to the small print.Rental contract
The following provisions shall be contained in the rental contract:
* Details of landlord and tenant
* Description of the property
* The contract term
* Amount of rent and payment terms
* Any other legal provisions that the parties agree
Rental contract may be made before a notary and recorded at the Spanish Property Registry (Registro de la Propiedad).
These are only general guidelines and not definitive statements of the law, all questions about the law's applications to individual cases shall be directed to a lawyer in Spain
The contract time period
Both parties will need to agree to the term for which the property will be rented. You may rent the property for a long or a short term. The distinction is very important as Spanish law provides with less rights to short-term tenants
Short term rental contracts
Short-term rental contracts (contrato de arrendamiento de temporada) require that the tenant vacate the property when the contract ends. This type of contract is normally used for holiday letting.
The short-term condition must be specified in the contract, which duration may run for up to one year.
Long-term rental contracts
You can settle a long-term rental contract, which duration exceeds one year.
If the contract does not exceed five years duration, it will be renewed automatically upon its expiration for periods of one up to a five years term, unless the tenant is not willing to renew it. The landlord is obliged to accept these renewals, except when he had previously stated in the contract that he needs to recover the property for his own use before running the 5-year period.
After the five years' term, the owner may rescind the contract, provided that he had given the tenant 30 days' notice before the end of the contract, otherwise the contract will be automatically renewed for three years, unless the tenant refuse this renewal.
When the contract does not provide its duration, rental contract will run for one year.
The deposit
Upon signature of the rental contract, tenants are required to pay the landlord a deposit (fianza) equal to one month rent payment, in order to guarantee that the property will be returned to the owner in the same state as before the occupation.
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Here's a short introduction to our Where to Live section in Spain.
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