The Duration of rental contracts and the options that have owners and tenants at the end of the deadline generate many doubts. As, for example, until when it can be renewed, or how much the owner can raise the rent. But one of the most common is what happens when the contract reaches the fifth year since it was signed.
The Urban Lease Law provides in its article 9 that the duration of a housing rental contract will be extended for 5 years (or 7 if the landlord is a legal person), unless the tenant does not want.
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Therefore, this fifth year becomes a key date for homemade, and is that according to the expert lawyer, Alberto Sánchez, through his social networks ‘legally’:
“The fifth year is the first opportunity that the owner has to terminate the contract for his mere will, simply because he wants, for no reason.”
The landlord has fulfilled the legal deadline and can decide what to do with housing
Once the 5 years have been reached, and the contract has fulfilled the legal deadline and has ended in a timely manner, the lessor can decide not to renew it.
The lawyer adds that, if the owner wants to sign a new contract (even with the same tenants) and “you do not live in a residential market area, you can put exactly the price he considers, whoever wants.”
In that case, the tenant has two options, “Sign it or look for another place to live,” says Sánchez.
If the landlord does not warn in the established time, the tenant can stay in the house for up to 3 more years
However, it must be taken into account, that for the contract to be completed when this period of 5 years arrives, the landlord must notify the tenant at least 4 months in advance of his intention not to renew.
If you do not comply with this notice, the rental contract can be extended up to 3 more years, just as collecting article 10 of the Lau. Once it is within this period, only tenant has the power to decide if AO is renewed until the maximum period is exhausted, as long as “manifests the lessor with a month in advance of the end date of any of the annuities.”
