Up till 2023, the final rule in Spain was that each the owner and the tenant would each should pay property company charges when a rental contract was processed by way of them, though in some instances it was simply the arrendatario (tenant) somewhat than the arrendador (landlord) who needed to foot most of this fee.
Tenants typically had the sense they weren’t getting a lot in return out of it, because it was widespread to search out residences hadn’t been cleaned, stuffed with damaged furnishings and different home equipment that weren’t working.
On prime of a fee to the company equal to 1 month of hire, tenants needed to pay one to 2 month’s deposit and a month’s hire, that means they needed to pay a complete of three to 4 months’ value of charges upfront, which might rack as much as some huge cash.
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Fortunately, Spain’s housing regulation, introduced into drive in Might 2023, put an finish to this and now it’s solely all the way down to the owner to pay the company charge as they’re those who employed them.
The regulation, which modified a part of the City Leasing Regulation of 1994, now states: “The bills of actual property administration and formalisation of the contract will likely be borne by the lessor,” that’s, the proprietor of the property.
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One of many major issues is that companies have been doing this for therefore lengthy that they stand to lose fairly a bit of cash and should proceed to ask tenants to pay on the aspect.
Alejandro Fuentes-Lojo, a lawyer specialised in actual property regulation defined to Spanish information website Newtral: “Many professionals will attempt to circumvent this prohibition, and in some instances they’ll attempt to make the tenant pay out of pocket, however we should warn that in the event that they agree, they are going to be unprotected by the regulation”.
Commercial
Remember, although tenants shouldn’t should pay the complete company charges anymore, there are particular circumstances during which they might nonetheless should pay one thing.
The Rental Negotiating Company (ANA), states that there are a sequence of outstanding instances the place actual property companies can cross a few of these bills on to tenants, particularly when they’re provided a sequence of further providers that straight profit them.
These bills may embody home cleansing providers on the finish of the lease, restore providers and authorized recommendation throughout the length of the contract, or different providers the place it may be confirmed that they’ve a direct profit for the tenants. These bills can solely be collected after the contracts are signed.
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Commercial
The final director of ANA and a lawyer specialised in leasing, José Ramón Zurdo, states: “The brand new Housing Regulation doesn’t regulate or restrict the impression of bills that accrue after the signing of the contracts, as a result of the restrict of bills that may be handed on is closed after this time”.
Based on the brand new housing regulation, bills that may’t be handed on to the tenant embody administration bills charged by actual property companies for intermediating, trying to find tenants and displaying the houses. Tenants may also not be charged for bills of formalising contracts or paying any legal professionals or notaries concerned.
There are additionally 4 distinctive instances the place companies can nonetheless cost charges to tenants, when they aren’t recurring residence leases and, subsequently, are usually not regulated by the City Leases Regulation.
These embody:
- Vacationer lodging
- Rental of economic or workplace area
- Seasonal leases
- Luxurious housing leases – Properties whose floor space exceeds 300 m2 constructed, or whose hire exceeds the interprofessional minimal wage by 5.5 occasions.
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