If you are looking to rent a property in Spain there are a number of things you will need to be familiar with before you go ahead and sign a contract.
Normally it is not necessary to hire a lawyer if you plan to rent a property in Spain but if the contract is in Spanish it can be recommended that you at least bring someone who speaks fluent Spanish and go through the contract with you.
The Spanish rental market can be divided into two groups, the short term rentals and the long term rentals. In this case we will only look at rental where the renter is a person and not a company as the legislation is a bit different for rental contracts between companies.
Short term rentals is per definition all rentals of less than 1 year and long term rentals are for 1 year or more.
Short term rentals can be as short as you agree upon from a couple of hours up to maximum 11 months and 29 days.
Apart from the difference in the time period there are some important differences in the rights and obligations of both the tenant and the owner between short term rental contracts and a long term rental contracts.
If you sign a short term contract but continually renew the contract and finally stay for 1 year or more the contract can automatically be interpreted as a long term contract and you will get the same rights as in long term contracts.
With out going into all the details in general in short term contract the owner have easier access to the property and can easier cancel contracts if the tenant for example does not pay the rent.
In long term contract the tenant is protected much more and can decide the length of the contract from 1 to 5 years. The owner have no access to the property during this period (or at least need a special permit to get access to the property) and it is very difficult for the owner to get rid of the tenant even though there is a clear breach in the contract (i.e. the tenant does not pay the rent).
This is the reason why there traditionally have been very few properties for long term rental in Spain because the owners do not want to take the risk of renting out the property and getting into trouble later.
Today this have changed a bit and the owner of the property is better protected against breach in contract from the tenant and this is also the reason why there are more properties available for long term rentals today than for example 10 years ago.
It is up to the tenant and the owner to decide what type of contract they are going to sign and the specific clauses in the contract but there exists official rentals contracts that can be bought at any Estanco (the shops that also sells stamps, bus/train tickets, phone cards and tobacco) but in general it needs to specify the following:
- A full description of the property
- The contract period
- Full details of owner and tenant (name, ID and address)
- Amount of rent and payment terms (for long term contracts this will have to be on a monthly basis whereas in short term contracts it is up to both parties to agree)
- Any other Spanish legal provisions that both parties agree (including deposit etc.)
There is in general no big difference in the appearance of a short and a long term contract apart from the length of the contract as the rights of both the owner and the tenant depend on the Urban Leases Act.
For example as mentioned above a short term contract that is renewed for more than one year will be interpreted as a long term contract when it comes to the rights of the tenant.
It is normal to pay deposits when you rent a property in Spain both for short term and long term rentals as this is the easiest way the owner can recover damages or failure of payment of the rent.
A typical deposit for a long term rent will be from one month rent up to several months rent and for short term rents it will normally be a fixed amount.
The amount you pay in deposit should be clearly stated in the contract and the deposit can newer be used to pay damages caused by wear and tear.
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