Costa del Sol Property Blog

In what we are seeing as quite a positive move, the Spanish government has recently passed a law to help stimulate the property rental market by making the eviction process much easier and simpler for landlords. Until now, the rental market for Spanish property has always been quite anaemic due to the lack of protection afforded to landlords, with one of the main issues being the length and difficulty of removing non-paying tenants. But it appears this is to change.

The new law should allow for the possibility of a direct execution of an eviction order of less than 15 days and without any other formalities in the case of tenants who do not voluntarily leave the property in the stipulated time.

Several of the more interesting points about the new law:

1. Eviction application reduction

Upon formal request of outstanding payments the landlord now only needs to wait one month (previously two months) before filing an eviction application. Although it should be noted, as with the previously laws, this eviction application can be avoided however if the tenant makes good any outstanding amounts in this time.

2. Rapid execution

A court sentence is now sufficient for the execution of the eviction on the day and at the time stipulated in the sentence.

3. Verbal Court Case

The new law also means that all actions, both the eviction itself as well the claiming of outstanding rent can now be carried out verbally (i.e. without the need for additional documentation). This will allow for the passing of a court sentence in as little as 5 days.

The law always provides that in certain cases the landlord will under certain circumstances no longer be necessarily bound to a minimum contract of 5 years. The landlord will be able to rescind the contract in certain additional cases including the need for the property for personal use and can be extended to cover direct family members. These clauses would have to be expressly written in the contract however. Please note though, if the landlord of family member does not take possession of the property, the landlord would be obliged to return the property to the tenant and to pay of the outstanding expenses incurred in seeking alternative accommodation.

Now that this step has been taken, the Spanish government only needs to improve the tax deductions that landlords can make on a rental property, and the rental market should finally be able to develop properly.

Regards
Andrew Bellés