How much cash you need on signing day

Key rules

• Fianza: The legal deposit is one month's rent.
• Extra guarantee: Any additional guarantee is capped at two months' rent.
• Total security: Deposit plus extra guarantees cannot exceed three months' rent.
• Agency fees: The landlord pays agency and contract fees, not you.

On signing day you pay the first month's rent, the fianza and, only if the landlord asks, an extra guarantee. You should not pay agency fees. Anything beyond this can be questioned.

What you can be asked to pay

Start with the first month's rent, paid at signing or when you collect the keys. Later rent is due in the first seven days of each month, unless the lease says otherwise.

Next is the fianza, the refundable deposit. The landlord must lodge it with the regional body; ask for a written receipt.

Then comes an optional extra guarantee. It can be an extra cash deposit, a bank guarantee, a guarantor or, sometimes, insurance you pay for. The two-month cap covers standard leases of up to 5 years, or 7 years if the landlord is a company; on a seasonal lease the deposit and cap differ (rooms and seasonal contracts).

The ceiling

Add the first month's rent and your top cash figure is four months' rent. Any amount above the cap is void, and you can claim it back. How the limits work.

Fees

Since May 2023 a clause or invoice that charges you for the agency or for drafting the contract is void on a habitual-residence lease: refuse it. Other charges, such as an inventory or a utility contract change, are lawful only if they are a real cost of a service in your interest. Ask for each one as an itemised line in writing; the utility company or service provider charges it, not the landlord as a profit.

How to pay

Pay by bank transfer to an account in the landlord's name. A landlord who is a business or professional cannot take cash payments of €1,000 or more (€10,000 if you do not live in Spain). Refuse hidden or non-refundable "reserve" sums that have no document.

Choosing between options

Which extra guarantee should you offer, if the landlord asks for one?

• No extra guarantee: The landlord accepts the one-month fianza alone. This is the lowest cash on signing day.
• Extra deposit in cash: You have the cash and want a simple route. It adds up to two months' rent up front.
• Bank guarantee (aval bancario): You prefer not to hand over cash. The bank blocks your money or charges a yearly commission of 0.5% to 2%, plus an opening fee of 0.5% to 1%.
• Rent-default insurance: The landlord prefers insurance. It is normally the landlord's cost; if you pay, it costs 3% to 5% of annual rent and counts toward the two-month cap.
• A guarantor: Someone in Spain or abroad signs to cover your rent. The conditions are in bank guarantees, guarantors and rent default insurance.

A pet deposit is not a separate category: it counts as an extra guarantee (pets).

Paying your deposit and rent from abroad

This section is for people who do not live in Spain yet.

1. Before you send any money, check the owner's identity and ownership, for example with a Nota Simple from the Property Registry.
2. Ask for the landlord's Spanish IBAN in writing and confirm the account is in the landlord's name.
3. From a euro account, use a SEPA transfer or a regulated transfer app that gives a payment receipt. From a non-euro account, use an international (SWIFT) transfer and ask your bank for the MT103 message as proof.
4. Send the deposit and first rent in euros with a reference such as "Fianza + address + date", and save the confirmation.
5. Time it: SEPA credit transfers in euros arrive within one business day, and SEPA Instant transfers arrive in seconds. Send non-euro transfers at least 3 to 5 business days before signing or key handover.
6. Budget for fees: SEPA is 0–5 euros, SWIFT is €10-40 in 2025 plus a currency margin, and transfer apps charge 0.5–1.5%.
7. Allow for your bank's mid-afternoon cut-off, weekends and holidays, and a possible hold on a first or large transfer. If your bank holds it, give it the lease draft and your ID and move the signing date back.
8. If anyone asks for cash, crypto, gift cards, a money-transfer agent or a third-party account, refuse and pay only to the verified owner's IBAN. If you already paid by an untraceable route, report it to the police and your bank straight away.

Receipts and refunds

• Keep the bank confirmation for each transfer, and the bank's MT103 message for international transfers, together with the written receipt.
• If the recipient will not issue a receipt, message them to say you paid and ask for one, and keep their replies. If they still refuse, send a burofax with certified text and proof of delivery listing your payments and asking for receipts, and keep paying your rent on time.
• If you paid too much, ask for a refund in writing. If that fails, complain to your town's consumer office, or send a burofax demanding repayment and then file a small-claims civil claim (juicio verbal), which needs no lawyer up to 2,000 euros.
• Keep every receipt and the contract. These rules cover habitual-residence leases; seasonal contracts and rooms work differently.

Calculate your move-in cash for a Spanish rental

With rent of €900, one month of extra guarantee and €100 of real one-off costs: