Finding a home for rent in Spain is an increasingly complicated task. Tenants complain about high prices, which many experts attribute to the lack of real estate, something that can cause irregularities in contracts. One of the most frequent, according to the lawyer specialized in leasing, Alberto Sánchez, is the use of fraudulent seasonal contracts in homes that, in reality, are used as habitual residence.
In a video published on his social networks, the expert explained that this practice is more common than it seems. “They are making you sign a rental contract every year in the same house and you are using that house as your address, as your home, it is very likely that they are forcing you to sign fraudulent contracts,” he warned.
How this fraud works
Sánchez points out that many owners and agencies resort to this system to avoid the Urban Leases Law (LAU), which protects tenants in permanent housing contracts. Instead of signing a housing lease, tenants are required to renew a seasonal contract each year.
The lawyer sums it up like this: “They make you sign a seasonal contract every year as if you were there for work or health reasons, even if it is a lie.”
With this, the landlord manages to strip the tenant of the rights that the law provides for rental contracts for habitual residence and the agency also obtains benefits. “The owner wins because, as it is a seasonal contract, he strips you of all the rights that the urban rental law grants you as a tenant, and the agency wins because in seasonal contracts they can charge you for the agency month,” he explained.