Rental contracts in Spain: the most common violations between landlords and landlords!

 

A study conducted by the Rental Negotiation Agency summarizes the wrong practices of landlords and tenants when they rent in Spain. real estate agents in qatar

In times of uncertainty and crisis, scams are becoming increasingly apparent, and in many areas many people are violating the rules and regulations for themselves. This is true of the Spanish rental market and it is a problem which is accelerated by the crisis of the coronavirus.

This is the conclusion reached by ANA (Agencia Negociadora del Alquiler), or the Rental Negotiation Agency in Spain, where the experts state that "significantly increased numbers of tenants and owners of property who are trying to find shortcuts to bypass, or infringe the Urban Leasing (LAU) Act, under the exceptional circumstances of the pandemic COVID-19"

In order to avoid problems, José Ramón Zurdo's company decided in a recent study to summarize what are the most common "mispractices" of property owners and landlords in Spain.

Frequent infringements by landlords

Call for additional guarantees for more than two months

Prevent extensions up to five years

Use of residential rentals as tourist rentals

Subsidized (protected) housing development

Frequent infringements by tenants

Failure to pay rent

Housing deterioration: damage and property maintenance

Use of the deposit as a rental month

The landlord leaves before the contract ends

Housing for another person

Frequent infringements by landlords

Call for additional guarantees for more than two months

The study explains that, for Spanish owners who rent property in the face of the fear of non-payment, it is common to want to secure the rent as much from the outset as possible and, as a result, landlords frequently request additional guarantees from tenants for over two months.

This practice runs counter to the latest LAU reform, under the RD 7/2019 of 1 March, which limits additional safeguards to no more than two monthly payments. In the case of landowners who are legal entities, however, landlords can request more than two months rent as additional guarantees, if the rental is intended for a longer period, that is to say for more than five or more years.

Prevent extensions up to five years

Under the recent LAU reform, tenants have a right to stay for up to 5 years in a rented property. Some landlords use certain tricks, either for themselves or for relatives to recover the property by claiming false causes of need. The possibility of repossession is also available via legal channels.

Use of residential rentals as tourist rentals

This is the case of houses intended for saison rent and which, in order not to comply with the five years that tenants have been entitled to remain in the house, normally enter into rental contracts of less than one year in order to recapture the property later on and leave the tenant without his right to prolong. "When the tenants show that the aim of the rental was to reside permanently and on a regular basis, the contract automatically becomes a LAU-regulated housing rental contract, and not a tourism rental contract," explains the ANA.

Subsidized (protected) housing development

Property owners are also known to be bending and breaking rules on renting protected or subsidized housing in Spain (more often known as VPOs, VPPs, VPPs, etc.), especially when, for example, they are reserving storage space for their property. However, as the study notes, "home storage facilities are inseparable and must be handed over to tenants."

Frequent infringements by tenants

Failure to pay rent

ANA emphasizes that "Unfortunately, the main contractual default is late payment when it comes to property rental in Spain. The causes are quite different, for example, those of "professional defaulters" who do not intentionally pay their rent or think they have the right not to pay their rent, and mainly take advantage of private owners or companies with little or no experience in this field. On the other hand, there are tenants who, for example because they are unemployed, are willing to pay but can not afford to pay the rent. Usually a private landlord does not have the financial capacity to solve this situation professionally in this last case of default "There was a mistake.

Since the start of the pandemic, the failure to pay rentals among private owners has been on the increase, added the experts of ANA, "without experience in the selection and administration of tenants and rental properties."

Housing deterioration: damage and property maintenance

Apart from non-payment, the second most frequent breach of the contract is where significant damage or poor maintenance occurs. In those cases, the owner gets a property in a poor state that is worse or worse than when he or she rented it, a situation which must not be confused with the loss of time or the natural wear and tear of a property.

Use of the deposit as a rental month

Article 36 of the LAU governs everything related to rental deposits in Spain, but it does not, in any case, allow the tenant to use that deposit to cover the rent for one month. The study therefore stresses that "this will be used illegally and widely among many tenants who fear that the owner will not return the deposit and that last month's payment will be replaced by the amount of the deposit." Regarding the return of the deposit, in Article 36.4 the LAU states that the balance shall be returned to the tenant within one month after the keys have been delivered to the property at the end of the lease.

The landlord leaves before the contract ends

This is another common issue among Spanish tenants, who see it as their right to leave their homes whenever they want and are therefore not subject, and who consider it totally unfair if this happens, and if they receive a financial penalty. However, ANA reminds us that, "the assumption is true only if, at the early end of the contract, the rental contract does not explicitly state the penalty."

However, if this penalty appeared in the contract, and the tenant left after six months, notifying its owner 30 days in advance, the maximum penalty would be one month's rent for each remaining year of the contract, and the proportionate part of the compensation for periods of less than one year. If notice of 30 days is given, a further fine may also be applied.

Housing for another person

It is a common practice in many housing rentals, "When tenants include decide to permanently accommodate one or more adults in the property and therefore without communicating it to the landlord without having to be included in the rental contract. This practice can create many problems for the landlord, as the lawyer who now lives and is not included in the rental contract is exempt from all contractual obligations, from rent payment, duration of the contract, repairs "The study explains.