What should landlords do if a tenant stops paying rent?
As a landlord, renting a house and receiving the rent payment every month sounds ideal, but what should a landlord do if the tenant does not want to pay the rent?
The landlord can terminate the lease if the tenant does not pay the rent.
As you know, both the landlord and the tenant are obligated to fulfill their responsibilities under the lease. The landlord needs to ensure that the tenant can use the rented property properly, and the tenant has the obligation to pay the rent on time. When faced with a tenant who is in arrears and does not fulfill his legal obligations, the landlord has the right to break the lease, have the tenant relocate, and get the house back.
First, the landlord should first send a registered letter to the tenant. The letter should clearly warn that if the rent is not paid within a certain period of time (usually 3 or 5 days), the lease will be terminated immediately, the tenant will have to move out immediately, and a court case will be filed to recover the debt.
The landlord can only go to court if the tenant ignores the law.
The law states that individuals cannot enforce private law. This means that if the tenant does not pay the rent and refuses to move out, the landlord cannot forcefully evict him with violence, it is illegal to do so. In serious cases, there may be jail time. Therefore, the landlord can only take the case to court.
The purpose of court action is to recover the rent owed by the tenant and to evict the tenant. After going through a series of judicial proceedings, there is a judgment that the tenant must move out or the police can come to the house and use violence to evict him.
How long does it take to file a lawsuit?
Lawsuits in Spain are notoriously slow. It takes at least 6 months to a year for an ordinary civil dispute to be decided at first instance. In other words, when a landlord takes a tenant to court, it usually takes as long as 1 year from the start of the lawsuit until the court orders the tenant to move out. If the court is slow, it may take even longer.
Because of the time and effort required to file a lawsuit, many landlords require the tenant to submit a bank guarantee (aval bancario). aval is a guarantee that the tenant will get a bank to pay the rent, and if the tenant does not pay the rent, then the landlord can recover it from the bank.
Landlords are not allowed to use illegal means to force tenants to move out of their homes.
According to the above, personal enforcement is strictly prohibited by Spanish law. Landlords are not allowed to use any coercive means to force tenants to move out, the most common of which is to cut off water and electricity. These actions are forbidden by law. Even if the tenant does not pay the rent, the landlord cannot cut off the water and electricity, risks conviction for unlawful coercion, and in serious cases, imprisonment.
Of course, similar threats, verbal insults, and vicious noise disturbances are also illegal.
