Law 2/2015, of 1 April, on the deindexation of the Spanish economy obliges landlords and tenants who wish to revise their rent to express this intention by writing in the contract, for those leases signed after April 1, 2015.
In addition, if the reference to apply the price revision is not specified, the new Competitiveness Guarantee Index (IGC) replaces the usual CPI.
The LAU of 1964, which governed contracts signed prior to 1995, protected excessively to tenants, since it did not even contemplate the updating of rents between its provisions. These contracts, popularly known as old-income, saw the possibility of modifying their amounts (to update them) when the 1994 LAU came into force.
Since that date, the benchmark that was automatically applied to update housing rents was the Consumer Price Index (CPI). But from now on, with the amendment of article 18 of the Urban Leases Act of 1994, it will not only cease to be the predetermined reference, but also, if the intention is not expressly stated in the contract to revise annually the Amount of the monthly payments, this update will not be carried out.
In this way, the new rule contemplates up to a total of three different assumptions regarding the revision of the incomes:
On the one hand, there is the possibility that tenant and landlord do not include in the contract a clause that requires updating. In this case, the rent will not be revised.
On the other hand, if they finally choose to review the monthly payments and include this clause in the contract but do not define in the document the mechanism to be used, the law foresees that it is the annual variation of the new Competitiveness Guarantee Index (IGC) As the basis of the CPI of the Eurozone.
The option is also for the lessor and lessee to freely agree on the formula to be used, so that they can use the variation of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the Housing Price Index (IPV) or even the same CPI Rent specific.
