Is this contract a seasonal let or your home?
Flat Spain checks a Spanish rental contract against the rules that decide your rights. The question is not whether an 11-month contract is legal — a real seasonal let is legal everywhere — but whether the seasonal label matches how you will actually use the flat. In Catalonia, since 1 January 2026, a seasonal contract with no documented reason is presumed to be a habitual-residence lease.
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Stuck on a word rather than a clause? The contract glossary translates the Spanish rental vocabulary — fianza, temporada, aval, prórroga — and says what each one means for your money.
Why the label matters more than the length
A habitual-residence lease carries three things a seasonal contract does not: the statutory right to extend, the one-month deposit cap, and the cap on annual rent increases. That is the whole reason the seasonal form spread — an eleven-month contract sheds all three, and renews at whatever the landlord asks.
What the document calls itself does not settle it. A contract labelled temporada, used for the tenant’s actual home, can be reclassified — and Barcelona’s own enforcement suggests how routine the misuse is: across more than 8,100 inspections, 71% of unlicensed tourist flats were advertising themselves as seasonal rentals.
| What you get | Vivienda habitual | Temporada |
|---|---|---|
| Right to extend the lease | Yes, statutory | No |
| Deposit ceiling | 1 month + up to 2 guarantee | Not capped the same way |
| Annual increase capped | Yes, by the IRAV index | No |
| Can register your address | Yes | Contested in practice |
What changed in Catalonia
Ley 11/2025 came into force on 1 January 2026 and reversed the burden of proof. Before, a tenant had to show that a seasonal contract was really their home; now, in Catalonia, the landlord has to document why the season was real. Sanctions reach €90,000, and registering at the property is treated as the strongest evidence available. Nowhere else in Spain works this way, which is why this tool asks where the flat is before it answers.
Frequently asked questions
Is an 11-month rental contract legal in Spain?
A genuinely seasonal contract is legal anywhere in Spain. Using the seasonal form for someone's actual home is not. Since 1 January 2026, Catalonia presumes a seasonal contract with no documented reason is a habitual-residence lease; elsewhere it is decided case by case from how the property is used.
What is the difference between temporada and vivienda habitual?
A vivienda habitual lease is your home: it carries the statutory extension right, the one-month deposit cap and the IRAV rent-increase cap. A temporada contract is for a defined temporary purpose — a course, a posting — and carries none of them. The label on the document does not settle which one you have.
How much deposit can a Spanish landlord ask for?
One month's rent as the mandatory fianza, plus up to two further months as an additional guarantee. Three months in total is the ceiling for a residential lease; more than that is beyond what the law allows.
Can a contract stop me registering at the address?
A clause forbidding empadronamiento is a strong signal that the landlord expects you to live there and wants the contract to look seasonal anyway. Registration is treated as decisive evidence of habitual residence, which is exactly why the clause appears.
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Flat Spain screens every listing it returns — including for the temporada framing this page is about.
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