Friday’s vote is decisive. Credit: Adam McCullough – Shutterstock
Thousands of people renting, especially expats, in Spain are not on a fresh five-year contract. The paperwork ended years ago, they stayed, and the landlord kept taking the rent each month. Both sides treated it as normal and an agreement based on a handshake and good relationships.
That arrangement has a legal name: tácita reconducción. Once the original term and the Urban Leases Act extensions are finished, staying 15 days with the owner’s consent creates a new automatic tenancy even without a formal contract being signed. If rent was set monthly, it usually rolls month to month. Paying on time does not freeze the old contract forever. It does mean you are still a tenant, not a squatter.
Congress will vote on Friday, October 2, on a second royal decree that could change that picture. Cabinet split this week’s housing package in two. The first decree (or bill) eviction protection to 2030, a two-year extension for some contracts ending before December 31, 2028, tighter rules on seasonal lets (is the one most parties may swallow). The second is the fight: automatic five-year renewals and a payout if the landlord wants the tenant out without needing the home for themselves or close family.
Leaving tenants could be in for 12 months rent golden handshake
Under the leaked text, that payout is at least 12 months’ rent to be given by the homeowner to be given back to the tenant, using the state reference-price system, and never less than one month for each year the tenant has lived there. Notice needed to be given would normally be six months. The landlord would not pay if they need the flat for their own household, if the tenant has another adequate home in the same town, or if the tenant has barely lived there.
Tacit tenants are included. Under the draft, the new rules would apply from the first time their rolling tenancy comes up for renewal after the decree has been in force for four months. The years already spent in the property under the original contract would count towards the five-year minimum. If the landlord has already given valid notice to end the tacit tenancy before that 4 months after the bill is put into law, that notice would still stand and would not trigger any compensation.
That timing is the practical point. If the text is published on Thursday and survives Friday, a landlord who has done nothing may later face a large cheque. A landlord who has already sent a proper burofax (most official letter, legally) ending the tacit period is in a different position. Junts (Catalonia) and the PNV (Basque Country) have not promised their votes and will no doubt attempt to negotiate. The second decree is the one most likely to fall.
None of this is legal advice. A lawyer would need to wait for the BOE wording, look at the date your original contract started, and whether any notice has already been served. For many expats quietly paying an old rent every month, Friday is not another housing headline. It is the difference between a rolling monthly stay and a rule that makes ending it expensive.
