Modification of the Urban Leasing Law

The Royal Decree-Law 21/2018, of 14 December, which comes into force on 19 December 2019, on urgent housing and rental measures, was published in the BOE (Official State Gazette) on Tuesday 18 December. The most important modifications contained therein are the following:

1) - Extension of the periods of mandatory extension and tacit extension of housing rental contracts. The mandatory extension period is set at 5 years, except in cases where the lessor is a legal entity, in which case a period of 7 years is set.

2) With regard to tacit extension, it is established that, once the expiry date of the contract or any of its extensions has been reached, and once the mandatory extension period has elapsed, if there is no communication from either of the parties stating their wish not to renew it, the contract will be extended for a further 3 years.

3) With regard to the deposit, the maximum amount of the additional guarantees that may be required from the tenant, either by means of a deposit or bank guarantee, is set at 2 monthly payments of rent, except in the case of long-term contracts.

4) On the other hand, it is established by Law that the property management and contract formalisation costs will be paid by the lessor, when the latter is a legal entity, except for those services that have been contracted at the direct initiative of the lessee.

5) With regard to tourist rentals, the Law on Urban Leases is amended to make a technical precision in the exclusion from the scope of application of this law of the temporary transfer of the use involved in the activity of the so-called dwellings for tourist use, eliminating the limitation that these must necessarily be marketed through tourist offer channels and referring specifically to the provisions of the applicable sectoral tourism regulations.

Our firm has lawyers specialising in Civil Law in the field of urban leases, contact us and we will be happy to assist you.