Spanish rental contracts, word by word
26 terms you will meet in a Spanish lease, in English — and what each one means for the money you are about to hand over. Don't sign what you can't read.
Money
- FianzaSecurity deposit (the mandatory one)
- The statutory deposit a landlord must take and, in most regions, lodge with a public body.
- Garantía adicionalAdditional guarantee
- Extra security on top of the fianza, capped by law on a primary residence.
- Aval bancarioBank guarantee
- A bank undertaking to pay the landlord if you do not — and it counts inside the deposit cap.
- Seguro de impagoRental default insurance
- The landlord's insurance against non-payment — and, in practice, the thing deciding whether you are accepted.
- Honorarios de agenciaAgency fee / commission
- The agency's commission — reassigned to the landlord by the 2023 housing law, and still appearing on tenants' invoices.
- IRAVRent-increase reference index
- The index capping annual rent rises on a residential lease — published monthly, not annually.
- Gastos de comunidadBuilding service charges
- The building's shared running costs — whose bill they are is a contract term, not a rule.
- IBICouncil property tax
- The annual municipal property tax — normally the owner's, sometimes passed on by agreement.
- SuministrosUtilities
- Electricity, water, gas and internet — and whose name the accounts are in.
Contract
- Contrato de temporadaSeasonal contract
- A lease for a stated temporary purpose — lawful when genuine, and stripped of most tenant protections.
- Vivienda habitualPrimary residence
- The contract type for a place that is your actual home — and the one carrying the tenant protections.
- PrórrogaExtension / renewal
- The automatic extension of a residential lease — the protection a seasonal contract does not carry.
- SubarriendoSublet
- Renting from someone who is themselves a tenant — common for rooms, and legally thinner than it looks.
Paperwork
- Estudio de solvenciaSolvency study / affordability check
- The formal assessment of whether you can afford the rent, run against fixed criteria.
- ASNEFCredit-default registry
- Spain's best-known register of unpaid debts — being listed can fail a rental application on its own.
- NóminaPayslip
- The Spanish payslip — the document most often demanded and least often possible for new arrivals.
- Empadronamiento / padrónMunicipal registration
- Registering with your town hall as living there — a right, an obligation, and a gate to much else.
- Volante / certificado de empadronamientoRegistration slip / certificate
- Two documents from the same register, not interchangeable — ask for the one your procedure names.
- NIE / TIEForeigner ID number / residence card
- A number and a card. Conflating them costs you the appointment you waited weeks for.
- Cita previaPrior appointment
- The booking system for official procedures — free through official channels, and widely resold.
People
- Arrendador / arrendatarioLandlord / tenant
- The two parties to a Spanish lease — and two words easy to confuse at speed.
Trouble
- BurofaxCertified legal notice
- A post-office service producing certified proof of what you sent and when — the step before court.
- DesahucioEviction
- The court process for recovering a property — slow, judicial, and not something a landlord may do themselves.
- OkupaSquatter
- Someone occupying a property without title — a real risk for buyers, and a heavily marketed one.
Buying
- Nota simpleLand registry extract
- The registry's summary of who owns a property and what is charged against it.
- Contrato de arrasDeposit contract (pre-purchase)
- The binding deposit agreement before a purchase — and the point at which walking away costs money.
Knowing the words is not the same as reading the contract
Paste a clause into the contract checker and it tells you what that clause commits you to. Or have Flat Spain find the flat in the first place — every shortlisted listing comes with its contract type decoded.