Are you up to date with the regulations to rent a home today? Read this and make no mistake!
The current LAU establishes as “tense rental areas” some towns (Barcelona among them). In these areas, the monthly rent of the rental housing is established by means of an index. Therefore, if you want to rent a habitual residence, and it is located in a town that the local Government sees as a tense rental area, you must establish its price using the index.
The index determines the price for you. Sometimes with coherence, sometimes without it. Currently there are numerous speculations about the law, some claim that it is still under construction, while others raise resources to make it disappear. But the reality is that right now it is in force and you have to stick to the rule, because otherwise you will be penalized for breaking it.
The index
We will obtain the price by entering the following information on the habitatge website:
- Area
- Address
- Floor
- State of conservation
- Energy certificate
- Year of construction
This form gives us a price per m² if we multiply it by the meters that figures in the certificate, then you have to deduct 5% if you are in Barcelona (amongst other cities) and then we have the maximum legal price to rent it.
But there is one but important. If the apartment is already rented, the price that this rental had also matters because if it is lower than the index, that price will dominate. Always the lesser of the two.
More options
This price can go up if your home meets three parameters out of six that allow you to add 5%.
For this, at least 3 requirements must be fulfilled among a series of improvements that the law includes. Among these assumptions is, for example, that the home is furnished, that it has a cooling or heating system, parking or communal areas, among others.
Another way to improve income is to be able to affect the IBI tenant and the community, but that only if it is the first time that this home is rented or if it was already impacted in the previous one. If there is a previous contract in which it did not specify that this was passed on, you will not be able to put it on the new one.
Exceptions
New works or works with less than 5 years are delivered and are free rent. And based on the vulnerable causes that an owner has, it can also see if the index exception falls through.
Alert, rents other than habitual residence and that have another purpose than not being permanent habitual residence do not regulate their price by the index. It’s free.
There is more legal text, but this gives you an idea that you must inform yourself well before signing the contract, giving prices and registering it in INCASOL.
