Renting a home in Spain: how long the contract really lasts, the deposit, and who pays the agency

Which rules apply

The Urban Leases Act, Ley de Arrendamientos Urbanos, distinguishes a lease of a home used as the tenant's permanent residence — arrendamiento de vivienda — from every other kind, including seasonal and holiday lets and leases for other uses. The protections below are for the first kind. A contract labelled 'seasonal' for a flat you actually live in all year is the classic way of trying to avoid them, and what decides the category is the real use, not the label.

The regions can add their own housing rules, and in areas declared stressed housing markets under the 2023 Housing Act further limits apply. What follows is the national minimum that applies everywhere.

How long you can stay

The parties can agree any length. But if it is under five years — or under seven where the landlord is a company or other legal person — the contract renews automatically each year on its expiry date until it reaches five or seven years. Only the tenant can stop that, by telling the landlord at least 30 days before the end of the contract or of any annual renewal that they do not want to continue. A one-year contract is, for the tenant, a five-year contract that the tenant may leave each year.

A contract with no length stated, or an indefinite one, is treated as made for one year, with the same right to annual renewals.

When the five or seven years are up, if neither side has given notice — the landlord at least four months before, the tenant at least two months before — the contract renews again for one year at a time, up to three more years. During those years the tenant can still leave by giving one month's notice before the end of any year.

The five years count from the date of the contract, or from the day the home was put at your disposal if that is later. Keep proof of the handover date.

When the landlord needs the home back

There is one way an individual landlord can end the lease before five years: if the contract said so expressly when it was signed. After the first year, a landlord who is a natural person may recover the home to live in it permanently, or for their first-degree relatives or their spouse after a final judgment of separation, divorce or annulment — but only if that need was written into the contract from the start, and only with at least two months' notice stating the reason.

If, three months after you leave, neither the landlord nor that relative has moved in, you can choose within 30 days either to be put back in the home for a new period of up to five years, with compensation for your moving costs, or to be paid one month's rent for each year left to reach five years. The exception is force majeure.

If you want to leave early

The tenant can end the lease once at least six months have passed, with at least 30 days' notice. The contract may say that a tenant who does this must pay one month's rent for each year of the contract still to run, pro rata for part of a year. If the contract says nothing, there is no penalty.

Deposit, guarantees and the agency

A cash deposit, fianza, is compulsory, and for a home it is one month's rent. It is not updated during the first five years, or seven with a company landlord. When the lease ends, any balance owed back to you starts earning the legal interest rate if it has not been returned within one month of handing over the keys.

Landlords can ask for additional guarantees — a bank guarantee, a further cash sum — but for leases of up to five years, or seven with a company landlord, the value of that extra guarantee cannot exceed two months' rent. A demand for six months in advance on top of the deposit goes past what the law allows.

The costs of property management and of drawing up the contract are paid by the landlord. An agency fee charged to the tenant for finding them the flat is exactly that cost.

Rent increases and bills

Rent can be updated once a year, on the anniversary of the contract, and only if the contract says so. If it says nothing, the rent is not updated. If it provides for an update without saying which index, the Competitiveness Guarantee Index is used. In every case the annual increase cannot exceed the change in the consumer price index. The landlord must tell you in writing, with the percentage, and the new rent is due from the month after.

Community charges, property tax and other costs that cannot be split per flat can be passed to the tenant only if the contract says so in writing and states the annual amount at the date of signing. During the first five or seven years they can rise only once a year and never by more than double the percentage by which the rent could rise. Anything measured by your own meter — electricity, water, gas — is always yours.

The contract as proof of address

Your rental contract with a recent rent receipt is the usual proof of address for the padrón, and the padrón is the proof of address for almost everything else. A landlord who refuses to give a written contract, or to let you register, is a problem you want to discover before you pay, not after.