Rental deposit scheme: how to get your deposit back!
Raymundo Larraín Nesbitt, May, 1. 2020
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By Raymundo Larraín Nesbitt
Lawyer - Abogado
1st of May 2020
We've all been there. You rent a property in Spain, the rental comes to an end and your landlord refuses to pay you back the deposit!
In this short blog post we explain what a tenant should do to protect himself against this landlord abuse and how you can claim back your lease deposit assisted by a lawyer.
On our previous blog post (Renting in Spain? Five clauses you should be mindful of) on point five we discussed how some devious landlords in Spain, after a lease is over, like to pocket a tenant’s one-month deposit and did not hand it back giving all sorts of lame excuses.
Spain is divided administratively into 17 different autonomous regions. Each region has devolved competencies on this matter and has an admin institution that is tasked with receiving this rental deposit (one month for long-term lets, two month deposit for seasonal contracts). On paying this rental deposit into an official public organization you are guaranteed to recover it, unless you have made damages to the property which the landlord will need to prove and justify.
The obligation to make this deposit falls squarely on the landlord (not on the tenant) and the landlord can be reported to the public regional Authority if they fail to do so (large fines apply on non-compliance, normally amounting to a percentage of the rental deposit). Additional Disposition 3 of Spain’s Tenancy Act (Ley de Arrendamientos Urbanos or LAU, for short) which rules nationwide all over Spain, compels all landlords to make these deposits as outlined in its art. 36.1.
As we write, in practice most landlords conveniently ‘ignore’ their legal obligation to secure the rental deposits, whether deliberately or out of neglect, and may need to be ‘incentivized’ by their tenants to fulfil their legal duties (read veiled threat of reporting them and face stiff fines on non-compliance).
If you want a shot at recovering your rental deposit, please follow our advice. You are welcome.
We briefly collate the contact details of the regional admin institutions to pay the rental deposit into. Please note we only list the regions where the majority of expats rent out, there are far more institutions we care not to include:
- Andalusia
AVRA gestión fianzas de alquiler
Internet: www.juntadeandalucia.es/avra/fianzas
Tel: 900920220
- Balearic Islands
Form F1
Tel: 900 780 000
- Canary Islands
Instituto Canario de la Vivenda
Tel: 928 30 60 00
Email: icv@gobiernodecanarias.org
- Catalonia (Barcelona)
Email: incasol.fiances@gencat.cat
Tel: 932954410
- Madrid
Comunidad de Madrid
Tel: 012
- Valencia
Complete form 806
We will be very pleased to discuss your matter with you. You can contact us by e-mail at info@larrainnesbitt.com, by telephone on (+34) 952 19 22 88 or by completing our contact form to book an appointment.
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Original article posted in IDEALISTA: Rental deposit scheme: how to get your deposit back!
Please note the information provided in this blog post is of general interest only and is not to be construed or intended as substitute for professional legal advice. This article may be posted freely in websites or other social media so long as the author is duly credited. Plagiarizing, whether in whole or in part, this article without crediting the author may result in criminal prosecution. VOV.
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