Signing a lease and upfront costs

The same lease law applies to EU citizens, UK citizens with Withdrawal Agreement rights and non-EU citizens. Each landlord decides what proof of income it accepts.

Key rules

• Fianza: The legal deposit for a habitual-residence lease is one month's rent.
• Extra guarantee: Beyond the fianza, a landlord can ask for at most two months' rent as extra guarantee, so total security is at most three months' rent.
• Term: A standard lease gives you the right to stay for 5 years, or 7 years if the landlord is a company. After the first 6 months you can leave with 30 days' notice in writing.
• Reservation: Get the terms in writing, including whether the money is refundable.

Step by step

1. Pay a reservation only against a written document. The terms must say the amount, whether it is refundable and what it secures: the reservation rules.
2. Get the draft contract and check it before you pay anything. Check the terms against the lease clauses to check or challenge, and see which running charges the lease puts on you. If the lease is only in Spanish, have it translated and reviewed first.
3. Check the certificates and any pet clause while you can still negotiate: energy and habitability certificates and pets.
4. Add up the cash due, then sign. The cash you need on signing day lists what you can be asked to pay; you pay no agency fee. You can sign in person, electronically or through a representative with a power of attorney: signing step by step.
5. Take the keys and record the flat's condition. On key day, read the meters and complete the inventory with photos, then send a written defect list within the first week: the move-in inventory.
6. Ask for proof the deposit was lodged. Soon after signing, ask the landlord for the receipt from the regional body: where your deposit goes.
7. Know how the lease ends. After that term the lease renews year by year for up to 3 more years; to stop it renewing, the landlord gives 4 months' notice and you give 2. Leaving early costs only what the lease says, at most one month's rent for each year still to run: the lease clauses.
8. The landlord must return your deposit within one month of you handing back the keys, with legal interest on any late return. If they keep it, take it to a claim.

If your situation is different

• No Spanish payslips, credit history or guarantor: Qualifying as a newcomer tenant shows how to prove income and which guarantees to offer, including a bank guarantee or a guarantor.
• No NIE or Spanish bank account yet: renting before you have an NIE or a Spanish account.
• Signing or paying from abroad: signing a lease from abroad and paying the deposit and rent from abroad.
• A room in a shared flat, or a short or seasonal contract: rooms and seasonal contracts have different rights from a standard lease.
• Two or more tenants on one lease: all of you sign the contract, and each tenant is liable for the whole rent.
• A pet: Renting a Spanish flat with a dog or cat.

Documents you may need

• Passport or ID, your NIE if you have one, and proof of income; a guarantor's papers if the landlord asks: Documents Spanish landlords ask newcomer tenants for.
• A power of attorney, if a representative signs for you: signing step by step.
• The draft and the signed lease, and the written terms of any reservation: lease clauses.
• The energy performance certificate, and the cédula de habitabilidad where your region requires one: certificates.
• Receipts and bank confirmations for every payment: cash on signing day.
• The lodging receipt from the regional body and your own proof of paying the fianza: where your deposit goes.
• The signed inventory, meter readings and dated photos: move-in inventory.
• A pet addendum, with vaccination and microchip records: pets.