El blog de Maria

The contract period of a rental agreement can be freely established by the parties.

However, be aware that are are very important differences in the rules about contract extensions depending on the temporary or permanent use of the house.  Be careful because having an imposed  tenant in your house obligatorily for 5,8 years depends on that, or… on the other side, if you are a tenant and want to use the house as a permanent dwelling for your family, the permanent use of the house needs to be  reflected.

There are rules of automatic contract extensions imposed by Law which are applicable when you rent a house as permanent dwelling. These automatic extensions of the Urban Renting Act (URA) are not applicable to temporary lettings.

Permanent:  Automatic extensions for 5 years-3 years.

Temporary: NO automatic extensions.

Reiterated Case Law state that we are before this kind of lettings if the house is rented for vacations, weekends, feast days… and with no pretension of covering the need of a permanent residence of the tenant. Therefore, the temporary character of the use is the key to differentiate one from another.

Important to note that a 11 months rental contract can be a permanent contract ( with rights for extensions and permanency) if the contract mentions the permanent character of the use. On the other hand, a one year contract can be temporary. Be careful as there is a general misunderstanding that a 11 months rental contract is always temporary against a one year contract which is always permanent.

Have a good Easter break you all!

Maria L. de Castro

www.costaluzlawyers.es

Caños de Meca beach ( Cádiz) by CPGXK at Flickr.com