In this blog we want to talk about how recently the “registration” has been a problem for rental contracts, both for the owners and for those who want to rent a house with a “use other than habitual residence” contract.
It all starts, and we know it, with the modifications of the rental law to “convince” the owners that it is a good and fair thing to make a contract for habitual residence.
As a result of this, many owners now put this type of clause in contracts for use other than habitual residence: “As it is a temporary contract, it is prohibited to register or take the census in this property and in the event that this requirement is not met and the property is sanctioned for it, the tenant will be the only one responsible for paying said sanction.”
The reason is that it is thought that if someone registers, they could consider the contract as “use as habitual residence” and therefore the owner could have legal problems.
According to us, this is something legally meaningless, given that a student or a temporary worker who has to live in Spain or in a city other than their own for one or two years, especially if they are a foreigner, needs to register, to carry out various procedures, not to finalise the NIE for example, and this without ceasing to have their domicile outside of Spain or in another city.
Obviously, a person who needs to live one or more years in Spain but for a specific reason of study, work etc etc does not fit the profile of a 5-year “habitual housing contract” for any owner, but without a doubt their stay is not “vacation” and the needs that this person has can be those of anyone who lives in Spain.
Speaking with the lawyer of Api, he confirmed that the “registration” is not binding to determine whether a contract is for a habitual residence or not, and the contract for use other than habitual residence must have the characteristics of indicating the reason for the stay and another address of the tenant among other things that determine its nature of use other than habitual residence
In addition, it is each City Council that decides whether or not to register the Landlord, and for example in Barcelona there are three types of registration, fixed address, that of minors and without fixed address which is the one that fits with a “temporary” stay.
Without forgetting that recently the Barcelona City Council has allowed to register with a rental contract for up to 3 months only.
Therefore, paraphrasing the title of Milan Kundera’s book, we are making this lightness of registration unbearable by creating “conflicts” when signing a contract for use other than habitual residence without justification.
Davide Rigoni CEO InversionesBCN
