The Central Government is changing the laws concerning rented property, which will hasten the eviction process of non-paying tenants. When you consider that only 17% of Spaniards live in rented accommodation – the EU average is 30% – it means that it will affect a high proportion of the population.

One step is the reduction of the stipulated period to end a rental contract. Another facilitates tenants in carrying out reforms within the property and the last – both the most hopeful and the most threatening – is that landlords will only have to wait ten days with a tenant not paying before a judge can decide on an eventual eviction.

But there is more, because a tenant that is renting with a view to buy can now renounce this option. Neither party is tied down by official indicator of the rise in the cost of living when rent increases come about – before the landlord could only raise the rent by this indicator each year whilst the contract lasts. Now, the tenant and landlord can ‘negotiate’ the price.

Going back to tenants and building reforms, the tenant can now subtract from the rent the cost of carrying out improvements to the property – quite who decides if such changes are necessary is not clear.

Finally, a rental contract for a residence was five years plus a tacit extension, which has now been reduced to only three years with a tacit extension of only one year.

So, at first glance these reforms appear to represent yet more instability as far as maintaining a home in a time of acute crisis, when you consider that those that cannot pay their mortgages are out on the street and still have to pay the mortgage even though the bank has repossessed their property, and now from a rental contract point of view, the chances of keeping your rented accommodation when you are struggling has been chipped away from the contract duration (five to three years), from the amount that a landlord can put your rent up each year, to how long you have before you end up living under a bridge from the point of getting behind on the rent.

Oh, the landlord can give you only two months notice that he wants the property back, if he can prove that he requires it for himself as his only accommodation, or for his immediate family, or for his partner in the case of separation.

(News: Spain)