I'm not surprised that your landlord is trying to get rid of you, he can turn around and rent the place for alot more, and it's money in his pocket.

I expect you'll be seeing alot more of that as interest rates are going up. Most Spanish have flexible rate mortages which means any hike in interest rates means a a hike in the mortgage payment. The lady who cuts our hair has seen her payments jump 400 euors a month. So I expect we'll be seeing loads of posts complaining about rent hikes ((I'm sure that will include us as well)

A quick peak at idealista shows you can get a small studio for about 700 a month.

quote:

I'm not surprised that your landlord is trying to get rid of you, he can turn around and rent the place for alot more, and it's money in his pocket.

Tim,

You didn't read Nava's original post and besides, Nava already knows what the next step is. Your statement certainly doesn't help to find a solution.

Shawn

Thanks Shawn
Updating:
My landlord wrote me I don't know the law and the rights of the landlord
I wrote him what the oficina de vivienda told me and gave him the address of the oficina de vivienda in Oviedo, for hin to check...so far he didn't responds
Hug

Nava

BTW Shawn when are you coming back?

Tim, you do have a point. Nava's landlord says it is for his daughter, either that is true and he needs it precisely because his daughter can't afford current rents. OR, he realized he can charge a lot more for rent now then when Nava signed the lease 2 years ago. Rent is going up that fast!!

I don't know if it is the market, which as everyone knows is out of control. Or it is a direct result of rising interest and thus rising mortgages. My beau's apartment is mortgaged and he had an increase of 100 euros per month this year because of interest. I have a student that has had her mortgage go up by 300 euros. In light of that, if a landlord is renting out a mortgaged property and that mortgage goes up, then it makes sense that the landlord would want to raise the prices.

But, in the case of Nava, a contract has been signed and the landlord can do nothing but wait. A friend yesterday showed me her amazing 2 bedroom apartment in Conde Duque for only 900 euros per month. I said...that is great!!! She said, not so. The landlord would only agree to a one year contract. She fully expects her rent to increase when that ends.

No problem at all Nava. I will be back in August, although I don't know the exact date. Waiting to get my passport back from the Spanish Embassy.

Please keep us informed Nava because I am interested in knowing what the landlord says.

Candy,

When I got my apartment in Madrid, the strangest thing happened. I told my landlord that I expected to stay in Spain for at least 5 years and he wanted to give me a contract for 5 years at 650 Euros a month. It blew me away.

Besitos,

Shawn

I could be wrong, but I think that landlords can't legally rent a place for just one year without the right to extend the lease if they aren't going to occupy it after that time. Our landlord tried to get us to sign a lease like that and I told them that we legally had the right to "prorrogar" and go month to month after a year and that we needed that to be in the lease. They changed it. If you are planning on being here long term, you should really make sure to sign a lease that protects you.

Let me add more information about my case. Juan, my landlord, was just so happy that someone was there taking care of the place and not causing problems that he just extended the lease, like Megan said, on a month to month basis. I gave him 2 months notice that I was leaving and even tried to help him to find a new tenant.

There was no way that I was signing a 5 year lease like that. It would've been great to have been locked into that price for 5 years, but then I thought, nah, I better leave that one alone.

Shawn

Just to clarify--the law isn't that the tenant signs a five year lease. The law is that the tenant signs a one-year lease and then has the right to extend that lease--month to month--for five years. The tenant is under no obligation to stay for five years. It is the landlord that is obligated to allow the tenant to stay for at least five years if the tenant so desires. The landlord can legally request a one month deposit or two months if the piso is furnished. Getting an aval is a way around this. Of course under this arrangement, the landlord has the right to raise the rent a certain percentage (based on the cost of living, I believe) every year.

Madrid has really strong laws protecting renters. Of course a lot of landlords ask for the moon and will get it from people who don't know their rights or are willing to give more than the law allows.

And I agree with Shawn. Most landlords would prefer to keep a good stable tenant at a lower rent, because they will lose rent during the months that the place is not rented out, will likely have to spend money fixing the place up, making repairs, etc. In the end, most of the time, it's not really worth the hassle.

It's still a horrid position to be in though when you know someone is trying to get you out, and you don't want to leave.

Apart from moving in himself, the only other way that he could force Nava out is if he put the flat up for sale, but then he would have to give Nava first refusal to buy it.

I do hope you are getting it sorted Nava

Hola foreros...

Time to call out the mm calvary again...

Now it's our turn to have landlord woes. Ours have decided to say Feliz Navidad by telling us that the entire month of April a bunch of workers are going to take over our apartment so that they can get to the patio interior to do obras.

Mind you, our landlords live right next door and both our piso and theirs has an entrance to the patio interior. Of course they don't want to be inconvenienced... so it never occurred to them that the workers could go through their piso. I think they are so clueless (with that pijo sense of entitlement) that they don't know that they are being jackasses.

Well, as I suspected, since there are other ways to get to the patio, the Oficina de Vivienda says that's a load of mierda and we don't have to let the workers in, because we have a contract protecting our rights to live here undisturbed.

The trouble is, since our landlords live right next door and our piso was once part of theirs, I think they could easily kick us out and take it over (they just told us they won't be renting it out anymore after we leave, so they don't seem to need the rent desperately). Though they have also told us that we are free to stay for several more years (¿as long as we allow them to jodernos la vida?).

Does anyone know how much notice they would have to give us if they decided to take back the piso for their own use? We forgot to ask at the Vivienda office and it's not all that clear from their booklet. We have a year and a half left on our five year contract.

Anyone know of a nice 2BR in La Latina? We love our place, but I am getting a bit sick of hearing our neighbors argue about how much they hate each other every weekend and major holiday (I guess that's their idea of "quality time"). And I things might get a little chungo when we put our foot down about this...

I just wanted to post an update on how this all panned out...

We ended up calling our landlords' bluff and told them that we would not allow the workers to go through our apartment, because the law says we aren't obligated to do so. They backed off immediately. The workers just finished yesterday and they ended up removing the bars from a window and were able to get in and out without bothering anyone.

Our landlords have been pretty sheepish ever since (they live right next door and I think they must realize that they were being pretty unreasonable). I heard them arguing again this morning... victims of bad karma, I think.

My apartment will be available in May.

Details: One lg bedroom, one small (I use it as an office), kitchen, salon, bath with tub, gas heating throughout.

Price, unknown. It has been very very cheap, but the landlord will raise it when we leave, I can't imagine that it will exceed 800, but you never know. It could be negotiable as he really prefers foreigners, not Spaniards.If interested, contact me and I'll put you in contact.

GOOD THINGS:
Location! Right on the Plaza Lavapies, steps from the metro. 10 minutes walking to Atocha.

Sunshine-The piso gets lots of light (corner with windows on all sides). Good views as it looks over the plaza not another building.

Furnishings-Lots of shelving and most of the furniture you need is here.

Commo-Phone line is already in and ready for ADSL.

Landlord is British and a very good guy. He's lived here for 10+ years but now is in El Escorial.

BAD THINGS:
Location! Plaza Lavapies can be noisy and dirty. If you know how this hood is, you can judge if you can handle it or not. One recent change, since about 5 months ago, is a constant police presence in the plaza which has calmed it down quite a bit.

Obras...the building has been in ongoing obras for years, they are getting close to finishing, but you have to live with dirty halls and loud workers until they do.

Dirty...as there are obras, there is no cleaner nor portero, so the building itself gets skanky.

Security, in the past we had lots of problems with drug dealers and indigents entering the building to sleep or do drugs in the hallway. About six months ago, they finally replaced the front door and locks and put in automatic lights which has pretty much reduced this problem to nil. But living in this hood, you have to be ready for anything and drug dealers on the doorstep is one of them. Again, police presence has really reduced that.

No elevator...and on the fourth floor. Before I was pregnant, I didn't mind as it was great exercise, now it kills me!

ANYWAY, overall, it is a great deal in the center (and if you are watching rental prices, there are very few deals left!). It is perfect for one solvent English teacher or a couple. Two people could share, but you will see the small bedroom is really small so rent would have to be divided unevenly.

Let me know if you are interested:
claballe@gmail.com