The following article is taken from Eye on Spain, www.eyeonspain.com

Evicting Tenants In Spain - Changes In The Law

My tenant is not paying the rent, what can I do? I have been advised that now the eviction process is faster in Spain and I can get back the property in weeks, is this correct?

Yes, as per the Laws 19/2009 and 13/2009, the last one applicable from the 4th of May 2010 there have been important changes of the Spanish Civil Jurisdiction Law, (1/2000- LEC) that affects the Eviction Process and claims for the rents due for the letting contracts.

Some of the most relevant changes are:

1.- The creation of OSI Office ( Oficina de Señalamiento Inmediato) has been approved. This office will set at the moment of the presentation of the claim a date for the court hearing, for these kind of cases should be within 20 days. It is true that at the moment the OSI has not yet been implemented, but it is expected to be within the next months, and then, the evictions will be incredibly faster than now.

2.- The verbal process, which on of the fastest court process, will be applicable for these kind of cases; claim for the rents ( independently of the amount claimed for), termination of the letting contract, etc.

Law in Spain3.-Following some other systems, like the one in UK, where solicitors serve the claim to the respondent, as per the new wording of the article 152 of the LEC, it would be possible in Spain to serve the claim to the respondent directly by the procurador of the applicant.

This could save quite a lot of time in the process, as the procurador will be able to serve the claim just one day after its admission, faster than it is done now by the courts.

4.-The new wording of the law also foresees the possibility of the execution of the Court order directly without the need to present a new execution claim, and without having to wait for 20 days from the date of the notification of the Order to the respondent.

Again this would save quite a lot of time to the applicant-Landlord.

To sum up the new changes in the Law already in place will make the eviction and claim for rent processes faster and more efficient. Once the OSI is implemented and working it would reduce the length of these processes from months/years to weeks.

Should this be your case, or the case of someone you know, we will be more than pleased to assist you.

*The information provided on this article is not intended to be legal advice, but merely conveys general information related to legal issues.

 


Comments:

CommentDateUser
All sounds too good to be true ! If you think this "speed up" processs is going to work here in Spain you would better off living in"faryland" 11/17/2010 12:06:00 PMmidasgold
On the other side of the fence, how quickly could I be evicted if I am one month behind with my rent?1/4/2011 12:56:00 PMlynncharn
I have tenants who have not paid any rent now for 21 months I started the eviction proceedure in July 2010 it took the solicitor 3 months to put the papers in order and apply to the Court the demand is dated Sept 2010, I have now just received confirmation from the Court that the hearing is in June 2011 and the tenants if the court agrees with me have to leave by 30th Sept 2011 as the tenants have not paid any bills either and have changed the locks and also done work to the property without permission and also threatened us via e-mail and face to face I hope the Court puts them in Jail, We are now about to loose our house because the bank has already applied for the house to be auctioned off. Well another load of Crap brits do the dirty4/24/2011 1:36:00 PMAlicante 2
Further to my letter above I have just been informed by my solicitor that my tenants solicitor no longer is working for them and the recent water bill of 500 euros has been sent from my solcitor direct to them for payment. Everyone is now telling me they are about to do a runner. Well they will run out of places to hide. They have already run from the calpe area to Alicante they will be running to the Murcia or Almeria areas next.The spanish law is against the owners and people who tell the truth it supports the liars and cheats who steal properties from the unsuspected owners. There are people known as professional tenats. You can check on line to see if any potential tenants have been evicted previously. It costs 10.12 euros please use the service you will not regret it. 4/28/2011 9:03:00 PMAlicante 2
Alicante 2 referred to a list where you can check on tenants that have previously defaulted. Can anyone tell me where to find this? Thanks9/15/2011 1:01:00 AMderekbarnett