Blanca Valbuena

Laws for tenant protection in portugal

New Tenant Rights in Portugal

There were some interesting changes to rental and tenant laws in Portugal on February of 2020 that allow tenants more protections.

The law states that tenants will have legal tools available “designed to correct imbalance situations between tenants and landlords, to reinforce the security and stability of the urban lease. and to protect tenants in a situation of special fragility ”.

This amendment is called the “Cristas law”. Here are some of the things it includes, I will outline more at the end of the article.

  • Rental contracts have a minimum term of one year.
  • On the first renewal, they must be renewed for another three years, unless the landlord needs the house for him/herself or for his/her children.
  • If you are a tenant who is 65 or older, the tenant cannot deny you the renewal of the lease or cancel the contract unless they are doing major works on the apartment or demolishing the building. For example, they can’t cancel your contract for painting or retiling. Same goes for disabled tenants who have lived on the property for 20+ years as of February 13, 2020.
  • Landlords who pressure tenants to move illegitimately (for example by not doing repairs or removing the mailboxes), can now be legally punished (I don’t have specifics on what this punishment is).

Benefits for Owners/Landlords in Portugal

It’s not all just benefits for tenants. Landlords get some pretty sweet deals as well:

  • The longer the lease is in place, the lower the tax rate that is applied to earnings from rent. The current tax rate, 28%, can be reduced by up to 10%. So, if the Portuguese rental contract is equal to or greater than two years, they are eligible for a reduction of 2% on taxes on income earned from taht rental contract.
  • Every lease renewal, for the same period, means a further reduction of 2, up to a maximum of 14%.
  • Leases of 5+ years but no longer than 10 years, pay 5% less taxes on rental income earned (dropping from 28% to 23%). As an added bonus, if you renew this type of lease, you can reach the 14% tax rate on rental income.
  • Contracts with a duration equal to or greater than 10 years but less than 20 get a rate of 14% on year 1.
  • Leases over 20 years get a 10% tax rate on rental income.

Renewals of 3 Years Minimum

Rental contracts signed after February 13, guarantee an automatic renewal for 3 years if the duration is less than 3 years and there are no stipulations written into the lease. For example, if you sign a 2-year lease, it will be renewed for 3 years UNLESS the original lease has a clause about this.

We will go into this a bit deeper in the next section.

Things You Need to Know About Portuguese Rental Contracts After the New Law

The Minimum Length of a Property Rental Contract is 1 Year

Leases have a minimum length of one year. If you were to sign a a lease for say 6 months, the lease is automatically renewed for 1 year.

Contracts Do Not Necessarily Need to Be in Writing

Crazy, right? While the law says that contracts must be executed in writing, a contract that is not written down may still be valid. For this to be the case, the tenant must prove that he/she was not responsible for the contract not being on paper. They must also prove that they used the property with the landlord’s agreement and that they paid rent for 6-months.

Compensation Drops to 20%

If a tenant is late, the fees to the landlord have gone down from 50% to 20% of the amount due. If the tenant continues to be late and there is a warrantor on the lease, the landlord must notify them before 90 days pass of the missing payments.

Mandatory registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt

If a tenant is late with their rent for more than 8 days, more than 4 times within the year, the landlord may terminate the lease. In order to do this, the landlord must inform the tenant by registered mail and acknowledgement of receipt.

Three Year Renewal

The new law mandates that if the rental contract is for less than 3 years and there are no other clauses in the lease, it will be considered renewed for 3 years at the end of the lease. If the terms are longer, the contract will be renewed for the same number of years (example, a 5 year contract will be renewed for 5 years). Before the law was passed, a 1-year lease was only renewed for 1 year.

Landlord has to renew the first contract

If you are on your first contract, your landlord cannot object to the three year renewal unless he or she is planning to use the house for him or herself or for their kids.

Extreme Situations

If you get fired or end up being involuntarily employed, or you can’t work due to injury or if a joint tenant passes away, the tenant can terminate the contract without having to pay the future rents. This is brand new.

Renovations Must Be Justified

The landlord has a chance to terminate the contract if certain types of works need to be done on the property, or if (as mentioned above), he/she or his/her children plan to use the property. In case of renovations, they need to be justified. For example, they can’t terminate your lease to paint. This also goes into effect for limited-term contracts that were signed under the RAU

This limitation also covers limited-term contracts entered into under the Regime de Arrendamento Urbano (RAU). In this case, tenants who have lived in the property for more than 20 years when the law came into force (February 13), aged 65 or over cannot be removed.

Two Year Waiting Period to Purchase the Property

Tenants have a right of first refusal after living in the property for 2 years (it was 3 years before) if the landlord decides to sell the property.

Landlords Cannot Create “Intimidating Environments”

So this one is brand new…I’m shocked…you ready? Here we go:

Landlords are no longer allow to use pressure tactics to try to get you to move out. So, for example, they can’t remove your mailbox, or remove the handrails from staircases.

In cases where a tenant feels this is going on, the tenant must first tell the landlord (I would always recommend by certified mail) that those measures need to end and be rectified.

If the landlord does not comply, then the tenant can go to the government to request an inspection to verify the situation.

At this point, the government will intervene in the tenants favor.

No Discrimination

Landlords can’t deny leases to people based on sex, ancestry, ethnic origin, language, land of origin, nationality, religion, belief, political or ideological beliefs, gender, sexual orientation, age, or disability.

When a property is advertised, the above cannot be mentioned as a restriction to getting the lease AND the landlords can’t specify preferences for certain kinds of renters.

Tenants may demand amounts that are not due to them

If an act of God happens in the property and the tenant is not responsible for it but pays for the repairs (example – something that comes up urgently), there is an IMA (injunção em matéria de arrendamento – lease order injunction) in place. So basically, the tenant can demand that the moneys be given back. I would suggest that you keep copys of any conversation with the landlord and the person that executes the work on the matter, and that you keep any and all receipts.

I hope this helped a bit to clarify the rights of tenants after the passing of the “lei Cristas”. If you have another question, leave it in the comments.

If you want to learn more, this is a good article (in Portuguese) outlining the law.

33 thoughts on “New Tenant Rights in Portugal”

  1. Hello I wonder if this law also includes alojemento locals, registered ones.
    Thankful for a clarificatiom

  2. Blanca Valbuena

    This is for regular rental contracts. AFAIK Alojamento Local businesses have a different set of laws.

  3. Hallo,

    wir haben bereits dreimal hintereinander einen 1 Jahresmietvertrag erhalten.
    Bis zum heutigen Tage, gab es keine rechtswirksame Kündigung (4 Monate vor Ablauf). Dennoch möchte man uns nun rausschmeißen.
    Um wieviel Jahre verlängert sich somit unser Vertrag?
    Außerdem ist eine Kündigung in Covidzeiten, ohnehin ausgeschlossen?!

    Lieben Dank

  4. I would like to know where one goes for resolution if the landlord is simply refusing to return the deposit for no reason other than they do not want to return it. I have vacated my place , I thought on good terms, I have emails and text messages and photo documentation the the place was left in excellent repair. She did not even clean after I left before other tenants moved in. She has refused to communicate with me and simply is not returning the deposit.
    I have no idea what my recourse might be.

  5. Hello Blanca. We first had a promissory note with our landlords to purchase the property on the sale of our house which was valid for 1 year. Thereafter it was verbally agreed to an extension of time from November 2019 for 6 months, which took us to April 2020. We still had not sold our house and Covid hit us all. We were in limbo during that period. To cut a long story short our house was sold on the 22nd of June 2020. The next day the landlord (ex wife) came to tell us that she had a buyer for the property, I told her we had sold our house (in South Africa) and were now able to go forward with purchasing this property. We also explained to here ex husband (the other landlord) that due to covid etc it would take longer to get our money from the house sale. He said he understood and nothing further was mentioned. THEN we received a solicitors letter on the 5th of October 2020 telling us to attend a meeting on the 9th of October 2020 and to bring a cheque along for the full payment of the house and that failure to attend the meeting we would be given 30 days notice to vacate the house. We went to the meeting and the landlords said that they had a higher offer on the house and that we had to up our price otherwise the deal was off. We were shocked, we had letter from the agency and lawyers in SA to prove that the house had been sold and the hassles we had experienced. This fell on deaf ears and we have been told in no uncertain terms that we up our price or get out. We will leave and asked for 3 months notice, they said no and we net to leave within 30 days as their buyer has the money and is waiting to purchase the property. Is this legal? What can we do? Thank you in advance

  6. Wow. I am so sorry to hear that. That’s a horrible spot to stay at. I wish I had better advice for you, but I think you need to get a lawyer involved. I just recently did an interview with my lawyer Joao Santos Pinto on issues with purchasing a home in Portugal. The link is here, but your issue is not covered. https://anchor.fm/blancavalbuena/episodes/Interview-with-Joo-Santos-Pinto–Portuguese-Lawyer-on-purchasing-property-in-Portugal-ej77fb – contact him. He is wonderful.

  7. What is different about Alojamento Local businesses?
    What makes a long-term rental contract different with an AL?
    Or are you saying they normally don’t do long-term rental contracts?

    We are about to do a 1-year contract with someone who has an AL apartment. Because of Covid and the downturn in holiday renting, they want to go to long-term for income security. Is there something special we should know about a contract with them?

    LOVED your article, by the way.
    VERY informative.

  8. Hi Celeste,

    AL (Alojamento Local) is more like an Airbnb or a hotel. They are meant as temporary lodgings and have a different tax structure in the Portuguese government. The people who stay in an AL also have different rights than those with a legal long-term contract.

    For an AL to convert into a regular rental, there are some ramifications…so this is where you may run into some issues.

    For example, a regular long-term lease legally should be registered at the AT (Tax Authority). This allows you to write off your rental income and will make a big impact on getting documents, etc.

    Since I am not a lawyer, I’d recommend you chat with one so that you can get a solid idea on how this may impact you, particularly if you’re here on some sort of a residence visa both on legal documents and tax ramifications. I have a good list here of English speaking lawyers…and I definitely recommend Joao from CVSP https://blancavalbuena.com/lawyers-and-attorneys-in-lisbon-portugal/

    Glad you liked the article 🙂
    Blanca

  9. Hi Caryl,

    Was your lease registered at the AT? If so, this will help tons. The deposit statement should be listed on your lease. In this case, you may want to go to the AT (Financas) and ask them what to do. I am sure they want to know that your ex-landlord has extra money to tax.

    If you don’t have a registered contract you may be out of luck.

    Blanca

  10. Hi Blanca,
    We rented a small apartment in Lisbon that already had a crack in the ceiling when we moved in(i took a picture of it for evidence the day we moved in) about 3 weeks later at the first rain, we realized this crack was becasue the house leaks in water from outside. we contacted the landlord but they woul not do nothing to fix it. then about 2 months later the ceiling has a waterfall and starts to leak into the electrical system of the house(also have video evidence of this.) So we left the house in the middle of the night as we couldn’t stay there anylonger. The landlord offered us another apartment but it was full of mice droppings so we declined. Now the landlord refuses to give us back our deposit.. Sorry for this long text. My question is: do you think we are covered by the law to get our money back(maybe under the ‘intimidating environments’)? thank you for your great article!

  11. My niece bought a condo in Portugal & passed away last year. Her sons are minors, living in the United States so they can’t sell the property until they turn 18 next year (2022). We leased the property last year for 1 year. The tenant has only paid the agreed upon rent for 4 of the 10 months he’s lived there. The other 6 months he has only paid a portion of the rent and 2 of those months he paid just a little over half the rent due. He is currently €1250.00 in arrears. Is there any legal recourse the landlord has in a case such as this? My great nephews will be selling the property when they turn 18 in 2022, are they required by law to continue renting the condo to this tenant when his lease expires in May? I appreciate any advice you may have.

  12. I would certainly hope so. This seems like a very valid issue. I would suggest contracting a lawyer. There is so much red tape when it comes to this type of thing here. First thing you need to check is if the lease was registered at the AT. Since IANAL, I will recommend a great lawyer in Lisbon, drop a line to Joao at jsp @ cvsp. pt. He has been nothing but wonderful. Good luck and make sure to update me on what happens, Hugo.

  13. Hi Jan,

    This year things are complicated due to Covid. There are laws protecting tenants. During normal times, they would be able to break the lease if they were moving into the property. Depending on the contract, they may need to tell the tenant 90 days before the lease is over, so it is important that you look at the lease carefully. There are also laws on how much they can increase the rent…so again, the contract is super important in this.

    I would suggest for this that you contact a lawyer. Email Joao at jsp @ cvsp. pt. He is incredibly knowledgeable and trustworthy.

  14. Ich habe eine dringende Frage
    Uns wurde beim Einzug 2018 zwar gesagt, dass das Wasser nicht das Beste ist ….. jetzt hat sich herausgestellt, dass das Wasser gesundheitsschädlich ist. Der Nachbar hat begonnen zu renovieren und auch gleich eine Wasseranalyse machen lassen …. die mit Vollmacht ausgestattete Tochter der Vermieterin wollte die Analyse gar nicht sehen und machte selber eine. Nun habe ich die beiden Analysen verglichen und es sind dieselben Werte.
    Beim Nachbar steht explizit kein Trinkwasser und hygienisch bedenklich, es kann Infektionen auslösen (was wir an den Hautproblemen meiner Frau und auch der Hunde sehen können)
    Bei der mir überreichten Kopie steht nur der Hinweis, dass es kein Trinkwasser ist und die Vermieterin behauptet, es liege alles im grünen Bereich.
    Wo finden wir diesbezüglich eine Anlaufstelle, auch um andere Fragen zu klären. (Die alte Waschmaschine hat ihren Geist aufgegeben, wurde im September gemeldet und Anfang dieses Monats endlich geholt, wahrscheinlich warten wir noch ewig. Aus der Not heraus haben wir selber eine gekauft) Wir wären auch froh um einen deutsch sprechenden Anwalt, was Vieles vereinfachen würde. Figueira da Foz oder nach Möglichkeit.
    Vielen Dank für Ihre Hilfe im Voraus.

  15. Richard,

    Ich habe gerade meinem Anwalt geschrieben, um zu sehen, ob er Ihnen einen deutschsprachigen Anwalt empfehlen kann. Ich werde dir zurückschreiben, sobald ich von ihm höre. Ich habe Google Übersetzer verwendet, daher hoffe ich, dass dies nicht so schlimm ist.

    Blanca

  16. Hi Blanca,
    I’m applying for a D7 and signed a 6-month lease for an apartment. The lease starts on April 25, 2021. I recently have some issues that will make it difficult to climb the stairs to the apartment since the building doesn’t have elevators. Also, due to the shutdown and the slow pace of vaccine roll out there, I’m seriously thinking of postponing my move. The lady who I paid to find the apartment for me said I need to pay three(3)-months penalty!!! That was not written on the lease contract. Is this enforceable? What are my options? Btw, I don’t even think they registered the lease. Thanks in advance for your reply.

  17. Hi Dee,

    I am not a lawyer, so a lot of the info I share here is from experience. From what I read you do have to pay that penalty.

    You can terminate a lease, but this can only be done after the minimum duration of 1/3 of the initial term of the contract.
    You need to send this request via registered mail or email so that you have proof (I would have this done in Portuguese and in English).
    Be very clear about who is sending the request and why.
    Keep copies of the email and if mailed, of the mail (I recommend both registered mail and email).

    If the lease is not registered at the AT (Financas), then your landlord/lady was most likely planning to evade taxes on earned income. This is tricky because if you haven’t moved in yet, they still have time to register it and you lose your leverage. I would contact Financas and find out if your lease has been registered. From here you need to decide if you want to use this as leverage, but your landlord may then register it since you haven’t moved in yet.

    I would tell you the best way to deal with this is to have a Portuguese tenant lawyer handle it for you. I put together a list of English speaking lawyers in Lisbon here: https://blancavalbuena.com/lawyers-and-attorneys-in-lisbon-portugal/ – they may know of a loophole for medical

    Let me know how things go, you may help someone else by sharing the experience here. If I find out anything else, I’ll update.

    Blanca

  18. Ich glaube, die Kündigung von Mietverträgen wird bis zum 30. Juni dieses Jahres ausgesetzt. Der Vermieter kann Ihren Mietvertrag kündigen, Sie müssen ihn jedoch erst am 30. Juni übergeben. Sie müssen Ihre Miete jedoch pünktlich bezahlen und auf dem neuesten Stand bleiben.

    Ich würde einen Anwalt konsultieren, um Ihnen dabei zu helfen. Ich habe hier eine Liste englischsprachiger Anwälte in Portugal. Ich kenne leider keine, die Deutsch sprechen. https://blancavalbuena.com/lawyers-and-attorneys-in-lisbon-portugal/

  19. Hi Blanca, I would like to ask if is it always the case by PT low that you need to announce minimum three months in advance to your landlord that you wanna to move out of the apartment? (We were living there for more then two years). We found it pretty difficult in such a way to find a new apartment as of course all new rents used to be with immediate entry. So to afford pay double rents for two / three months is financially heavy. Thank you

  20. Check your lease. There should be an area that specifies how far ahead you need to let your landlord/lady know that you want to leave the apartment (and vice versa). Normally it is 120-days notice.

  21. Olá, o que acontece se disser ao senhorio que pretende sair de casa 5 meses após a assinatura do contrato e, portanto, antes de ter concluído o primeiro ano?
    Obrigada.

  22. salve vorrei chiedere un informazione, quanti giorni prima bisogna dare la disdetta per un contratto annuale in Portogallo grazie

  23. Ciao Lore,

    Normalmente, se hai più di un anno di scadenza, dovrai dare 120 giorni di preavviso, mentre se hai meno di un anno, in genere puoi dare 60 giorni di preavviso.

    Puoi risolvere un contratto di locazione a tempo indeterminato o a tempo determinato. In quest’ultimo caso, la denuncia può essere effettuata solo dopo la durata minima di 1/3 della durata iniziale del contratto.

    Tramite posta raccomandata, un reclamo scritto serve come prova e può essere decisivo per risolvere il conflitto. Identifica chi invia, il destinatario e la data e indica chiaramente i fatti. Conserva copie della spedizione.

    Tuttavia, dovresti leggere il contratto di locazione e vedere se ci sono avvertenze che specificano altre direzioni. Il proprietario potrebbe aver specificato un termine per la risoluzione del contratto e la data in cui è stato firmato.

    Blanca

  24. Hi there
    We have been renting our apartment for the last two years – the apartment developed some damp and we allowed our tenants to stay in our apartment down the road. They then decided they couldn’t cor with the disruption and left without giving any notice. 2 months later their new apt wasn’t working out and asked to come back. Does the current contract still stand if they left without notice. Also they have become very difficult- We want to sell our apartment, we offered it to them but they can’t afford. Can we serve notice?

  25. Wish I could help you with that one, but I don’t have the answer. Something tells me since they left, their contract would be null and void, but you may need to prove that if you want them not to come back. I would start to put together any documentation you have (emails, sms, letters) and discussing with a lawyer. Here is a list of English-speaking Portuguese lawyers in Lisbon.

    PS – I would love it if you updated us on the situation. I am sure you will help plenty of other landlords to deal with their tenants in Portugal.

    Wishing you tons of luck!
    Blanca

  26. Hi!
    What if your landlord forbids you to work from home just because you need an ethernet cable to your room and now you can’t work anymore? Which also means I’m not making money anymore to pay the rent. Is this allowed in Portugal or can I do something?

  27. Good morning,

    I have an interesting question. My dad married this Brazilian lady because he was eternally ill and did not want to let us know of his condition to my and my brother. My father bought her the ticket to come from brazil to Portugal and gave her a good amount of money for her to take care of him. As the years passed eventually we were told that my father had stage 4 lung and brain cancer. Fast forward to maybe like 2 years ago this lady told me that once my father would pass away she would leave Portugal. Now this is where things get complicated. My father left us an apartment to be under our name mines and my brothers. We have been paying for the apartment expenses light, water, gas, condominium, taxes etc. We currently don’t live in Portugal. I live in the U.S.A. She is living under our apartment with no legal lease or anything. What can be done about this? I appreciate your help and advise!

    Thank you!

  28. Hi there, I am a guarantor to a party that’s in areas with there rent, I am in no position to settle what’s due as guarantor what action can I take to protect my self?

  29. Hello, we are planning to move to Lisbon however majority of apartments are offering (minimum) 1 year lease. Since we are new to the country and to the city itself, we were wondering what our options for the future are, in case we would like to terminate the lease earlier. Is it posisble, for example, to give notice after 6 months of renting the place? Would we be eligible to receive the deposits back? To be honest, the potential landlord is asking for 5 months deposit in advance (2 deposits for brand new furniture, 3 deposits for rent). It is quite a big chunk of money to loose potentially. Thank you very much in advance.

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