The Spanish Supreme Court has just handed down an important ruling for flat owners (full text in Spanish here).
Essentially, the Supreme Court has ruled that, in the event of a tenant’s failure to pay rent, a landlord bringing summary eviction proceedings for non-payment may also claim interest on the unpaid rent in the same proceedings, provided that interest was foreseen in the tenancy agreement.
Until now, various Provincial Courts in Spain had handed down conflicting rulings on the matter. Now, the Supreme Court has decided to unify the legal position (that is to say, from now on, all courts in Spain must rule in the same way on the same matter).
The judgment includes the clause in the tenancy agreement that gave rise to the lawsuit and led to a decision on the merits of the case. Accordingly, if you are a property owner and are considering letting your property, I recommend that you always include this clause:
“Any amount owed to the landlord that remains unpaid for reasons attributable to the tenant shall accrue interest for late payment in favour of the landlord at the rate in force at that time for statutory interest plus three percentage points, without the need for a prior demand for payment and without prejudice to the actions and rights to which the landlord is entitled in accordance with the law and this contract.”
The text in Spanish would be the following:
«Cualquier cantidad debida a la arrendadora que resulte impagada por causas imputables a la arrendataria, devengará intereses de demora a favor de la primera al tipo vigente en aquel momento del interés legal del dinero más tres puntos, sin necesidad de previo requerimiento de pago y sin perjuicio de las acciones y derechos que correspondan a la arrendadora de acuerdo con la Ley y con este contrato».
