The rental housing market in Spain is experiencing an unprecedented situation of legal uncertainty after the Congress of Deputies repealed the Government’s royal decree-law that allowed an extraordinary and mandatory extension of up to two years in lease contracts.
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The parliamentary majority overturned this Tuesday the decree that came into force on March 22 and which until yesterday Wednesday allowed tenants to request the extension of their rental contracts based on the Government’s measure. About 2.7 million people living in apartments with leases ending before December 2027 find themselves in this situation.
What will happen to tenants who had taken advantage of a decree that is no longer applicable? And what about those who requested to take advantage but their contract ends after the decree has lapsed? Fernando H. Valls, Economics editor of La Vanguardia, answers these and other questions in the video preceding this text during a conversation with the newspaper’s deputy director, Enric Sierra.
After consulting various experts and professors of Civil Law, Valls explains that the situation could only be clear for those who requested the extension of a lease contract that expired before yesterday Wednesday. Legal doubts arise with tenants who requested that extension but whose lease contract ends from April 29 onwards. These people “are in a legal limbo and an unprecedented scenario,” as acknowledged by the Minister of Housing, Isabel Rodríguez.
“Never before in democratic Spain has a royal decree-law with such an important measure as the extension of housing lease contracts been repealed,” notes Fernando H. Valls. According to the experts consulted, tenants who had sent a burofax to their landlord requesting the extension will not have the right to it if the contract has not yet ended.
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This circumstance will inevitably lead to an “avalanche” of lawsuits and judges will decide who is right. Even the Ministry of Housing has made phone number 047 available to clarify doubts for those affected. Valls states that “we have entered a terrain of brutal legal insecurity for both tenants and property owners.”
A practical consequence of this legal uncertainty will be the withdrawal of rental apartments from the market because owners will have no certainty about what may happen and will not want to enter legal disputes that can last years.
Who assumes responsibility for having gotten thousands of tenants and landlords into this monumental mess knowing that the royal decree-law did not have a majority in Congress and, therefore, would lapse? Fernando H. Valls explains, in the video preceding this text, the internal discussion between PSOE and Sumar in the coalition Government and the nuances that each side has regarding this conflict.
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