What’s the law for in Spain?
April 17, 2008
Renting out a flat you own may allow you to pay the monthly mortgage or even bring you some significant revenue each month…Yet unfortunately, it can result in a great deal of problems as well.
They are the nightmare of all landlords: the tenants that have turned the omission of the monthly rent payment into a way of life. They should simply be considered swindlers as they rent flats without any intention to pay and between one eviction and another end up living for free for periods of up to one and a half years.
Mari Carmen, a flat owner in Puerto Banús, Marbella, acquaints us with her story. She owns a flat in this prestigious area and has long paid off the mortgage. She therefore decided to rent our her flat in May to a very elegant English gentleman “which was dressed so smartly, he looked like a marquis”. Upon moving in he demanded some improvements and a reduction of the rent as the air conditioning was not functioning correctly. He then paid one months rent plus a one month deposit. From then on, not one more Euro was paid. She tells us of how she went to see him to tell him that if he did not pay, he would have to leave, and the “elegant” gentleman responded very directly “I am not moving until the courts force me out of here”. The law in Spain ended up allowing him one year of free housing until they carried out the forced eviction.
The debtors mostly come up with the same type of excuses such as bank errors or personal and health issues. Out of pity, most landlords wait for an average of 8 months and 5 days to take the debtors to court.
The average debt in Spain is of 3999 Euros and end up being impossible to collect. Once the complaints have been deposited it takes an average of 6 months and 14 days for the court sentence to fall an another 3 months and 16 days on average for the forced eviction. In total, 18 months. An this is just an average!
Many of these cases are delayed another 12 months due to saturated courts or administrative hold-ups.
So how can we avoid becoming a victim of these crooks? Research has shown that most of them are men (50,5%) and of Spanish nationality (74,2%), 25,8% of them are foreigners and 35,7% are women. So as we can see, identifying them is just a matter of luck!
It seems that word has got around that if you don’t pay your rent in Spain, nothing will happen to you!
Written by Sophie · Filed Under Business
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