When renting, both parties (owner and tenant) may have doubts, especially regarding the duration of the contract and possible price updates. If we follow the Spanish legal framework, article 18 of the Urban Leasing Law (LAU) establishes that the landlord can only update the rent at the end of each year of the contract.
“During the validity of the contract, the rent may only be updated by the landlord or tenant on the date on which each year of validity of the contract expires, in the terms agreed upon by the parties,” this law expressly states, which can be consulted in this Official State Gazette (BOE).
Now, the tenant should know that this increase is only legal if it has been previously agreed in writing in the contract. Otherwise, the price should remain intact. A very important nuance that is also included in the LAU: “In the absence of an express agreement, rent updates will not be applied to the contracts.”
That said, it may be the case that, although both parties agreed to these rent increases in the contract, the owner has not been applying them at the end of each year. If this happens, would I have lost this right? Could I continue doing it? The answer is yes. And cumulatively (although with limits).
The landlord can suddenly raise the rent for the years in which he has not done so cumulatively
Homeowners have the legal right to make cumulative rent increases for up to five years if they did not do so previously. This is how the rent expert lawyer, Alberto Sánchez, explained it on his social networks: “If the owner forgets to update the rent for several years, up to five, he can raise it all at once.”
This possibility is not included in the aforementioned Urban Leases Law, but in the Civil Code. Exactly, in article 1964.2, which is what allows rents to be raised for up to the last 5 years “if it has not been done before.” Now, there is a nuance: this update can only be applied to future monthly payments after notifying the tenant, the rule expressly prohibiting the retroactive collection of debts for past years.
“They can raise your rent starting the month following the month they notify you. That is, if they haven’t raised your rent for 3 years and they notify you now, it will be to start paying the updated rent for these 3 years starting the following month. But in no case can they tell you, ‘Hey, since I didn’t raise your rent in the first year, you owe me 200 euros for the first year. Since I didn’t raise your rent for the second year, you owe me 250 for the second year.’ They can’t do that. It is from the month following the month of the notice,” the lawyer reiterates to leave no room for doubt.
Likewise, as Sánchez has explained on other occasions, this update must be notified in writing to the tenant, and it must be indicated which CPI or IRAV must be applied and how to make the mathematical calculation of the rent they are paying. In this sense, remember that “by legal mandate”, in 2022 and 2023 rents “at most” could rise by 2% only for housing rentals and in 2024 a maximum of 3%. “These limits are maximum limits, that is, if a lower percentage had to be applied, the lower percentage is applied,” he concludes.
Difference between update and charge
To make it clear, as a summary, if the owner, for example, has not raised your rent for 3 years, he can calculate how much it should have increased each year cumulatively and apply that new price starting the following month. Now, he cannot claim the arrears from you. That is, he cannot ask you for the money he stopped earning during those previous 3 years. The increase only takes effect once it notifies you reliably (normally in writing or burofax) of that accumulated update.