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Lease Number 1: Zaragoza (2021)
Our first rental in Spain was in Zaragoza. In April 2021, we moved from Guadalajara, Mexico to Zaragoza, Spain, sight unseen. Our only experience with renting outside of the USA was in Mexico, where we had lived in two different properties. One we found with a relocation agency, and honestly it didn’t go well. The second, we found on our own, and it went very well, so this is the process we continued once we arrived in Spain.
We flew into Madrid Spain, then rented a large van to move us and our things to an airbnb that we had pre arranged and already paid for in the zona of Actur in Zaragoza. We rented it for 3 weeks. We had the expectation, based on other’s experiences, that we would find a place to live within that time frame. We had keys in our hands within 10 days. The process for finding that rental was as follows:
Once we were somewhat recovered from jetlag, had a local SIM card for our phones, and had an N26 bank account, we began making phone calls from the Idealista and Habitaclia listings that we were interested in. One of us, my husband, is a fluent Spanish speaker, so that was huge advantage. After a series of phone calls, answering lots of questions that we felt were very personal (compared to how this is done in the USA), and seeing a few properties, we finally found a private owner who would rent to us for a one month fianza. He was a local attorney in the city. He wrote up the lease himself. It was very basic. It was one page long and basically said that this lease follows the law in Spain, and that was that. There was nothing special in the lease as far as terms go. We didn’t know anything about terms anyway, at this point, but nothing was “added” beyond that the lease followed what the law allowed, and that was it.
During our time in this rental, we learned about what central A/C actually means, what happens when your bathtub is not well sealed and leaks into someone else’s home, by no fault of your own, that windows can have locks with no keys and be permanently closed, etc. For various reasons, we decided to leave Zaragoza after 8 months of living in the city, and so we also learned after research on the CAB website (Citizens Advice Bureau) that we could break a lease after 6 months, and that unless there were certain stipulations in the lease (there was not, because remember, the lease simply stated in every section which law applied to that section, and that was that), that we could break the lease with a 30 days notice. So, we decided on where to make our next move to, secured a lease there, and broke the lease in Zaragoza with the 30 day notice.
Here is a tour of our first apartment, taken in 2021.
The deposit refund: After 2 months, we realized that we had never received our deposit back. After contacting the owner many times, and getting no response, we had to do more research to learn the requirements of returned deposits. We learned that there was a time limit both for them to send us an itemized bill for keeping the deposit (which had passed) and a timeline for returning the deposit (which had also passed). With this information, we knew that we were entitled to receive the deposit back, because he had not sent us an itemized list of expenses in order to validate keeping the deposit.
We did have to call and text numerous times over many weeks. We had to threaten to get an attorney involved, but yes, we did get our full deposit back (the fianza), which was one month of rent. For this apartment, we had did not pay a guarantee (additional money to secure the rental).
Here is a detailed review of how different moves, why we made them, why we came to Zaragoza first, and ultimately, why we returned to Zaragoza.
Scroll past it for details on lease #2.
Lease Number 2: Murcia (2021)
For lease number two, which was our first move within Spain, we once again found our own rental, and secured everything rather quickly. Our timeline went approximately like this:
We first called many places on idealista FROM Zaragoza. We planned a train trip from Zaragoza to Murcia. Even while on the train, we were still securing appointments to view apartments. We reserved a hotel room for the weekend. We really thought we could find a place to live over a 3 day weekend, and then return back home to Zaragoza, pack our things, and move.
Once we arrived, we explored the city, and we met agents and owners to look at properties. We weren’t finding what would work for us, so we starting to look on Habitaclia. We found a place there that we really liked and arranged to see it. At this property, we felt that we could live there (nothing is ever perfect, so don’t expect it to be), and asked what the next steps were to secure the rental, and they said to go to the agent’s office and do the deposit paperwork and pay the deposit. We had pre-asked the owner what the terms of the deposit were, and he said one month’s deposit (the fianza), and so we agreed, and then left to find an ATM to withdrawal the cash for the fianza. We went to the agent’s office, and all sat at a table to sign the paperwork and pay the deposit. We had no stipulations to add to the lease- the place was equipped the air conditioners, and didn’t have anything that we felt needed to be completed before we could move-in. For us, it was move-in ready. We had already asked if the owner would remove a few things, and he had agreed. We did not have this detail added to the lease or to the deposit paperwork, and there ended up being no problem at all with him removing the things we didn’t want.
When we got to the office, the AGENT voiced that there would be a two month additional guarantee, and the owner looked traumatized lol. He KNEW that he had already spoken to us at the house and that he had said for himself that it was a one month deposit. Cue the awkwardness. He said no, we said no, the agent stressed that yes, it was for HIS protection. We all sat there, not knowing what to do. I spoke up. I told them, we will do the extra deposit of one month, BUT it has to be returned, in cash, on the day that we return the keys, and that the fianza can be returned according to the normal lawful procedure. The owner adamantly agreed. The agent agreed, and all was fine. The reason we offered this option and were willing to do it, was because the rent was well below what we could afford. It was almost half of what we had been paying in Zaragoza, and was more aligned with what we had payed in Mexico, so paying the extra was not a hurt to us. This is the one and only time that we have ever done this. This was also before it was “illegal” to ask for agency fees, which we also paid, at a rate of 50% of the monthly rent. They wanted a full month of rent, but we didn’t oblige that after they also wanted a guarantee.
All of the lease signing, paying the guarantee of one month, paying the first month rent payment, etc was done online via email and bank transfers, while we were in Zaragoza. We received the keys when we arrived back to Murcia, with our stuff in a moving truck, with a company from Zaragoza that we had paid to move the few things that we had accumulated by this point. We had only lived in Spain for 8 months. It was December 2021 when we moved to Murcia.
Here is a video that we made after moving into this townhome in Murcia. It is based on our experience finding two rentals, and is more accurate to the situation back then, than what I can recall now, 4.5 years later.
A tour of our townhome in Murcia city. This was OUTSIDE of the city. It was the only time we lived in an area that was not well connected by public transportation, and although we loved the space, the cost, and the little yard, we HATED living there without a car. It was wildly inconvenient to not live near the center.
When the lease ended, he arrived with cash to do the exchange, EVEN THOUGH I had accidentaly kept my set of keys with me, and was already at our next destination with our kids (Madrid). I had to mail the keys to him, but he still returned the cash on that day, as agreed, and received my husband’s set of keys in return. We received the fianza (deposit) back at the appropriate legal time.
To see more about our rental boundaries and how we organize ourselves for renting, see this post:
Lease Number 3: Madrid (2023)
Our trip to Madrid was a bit of an adventure. We began looking for somewhere to live in Madrid in December 2022. We followed the same protocol that we had followed for Murcia, and started making phones calls from Murcia. We got a couple of appointments made from Murcia, and then booked the train tickets to Madrid for the next day, so that we could go see properties. Agents will typically offer you today or tomorrow, so you must be ready to go see the property, or else someone else can get in before you. We arrived by train and went immediately to view properties. We saw, in total, I believe 4-5 properties and had no problems with being able to rent any of them. The one we decided on, required only a fianza (one month deposit), but did not have air conditioners in all of the bedrooms. The owner agreed to install the air conditioners, and so we requested for that to be put into the deposit paperwork, which they did. We paid the deposit via Wise, signed the paperwork, and went back to Murcia. The plan was to move in February. We then took a trip to Ireland at the beginning of January.
While we were in Ireland, seeing what it might be like to live there at the coldest time of the year, we received an email from the agent of the house. They said that the management of the building would not allow for air conditioners to be installed, if they were visible on the walls in the interior of the apartment building, and so for that reason they were not going to be *allowed* to do the installation, and so they would return our deposit and cancel the whole thing. It was very easy. They returned the funds within days, canceled the deposit paperwork, and we were done.
At this point, we needed to find another rental, so we returned home from Ireland and began the process again… copy/paste what we had just done. We made another trip to Madrid, saw 3-4 more apartments, liked one a lot, and decided on it. Once again, all that was required of us was to prove our finances and to pay a one month deposit. At this point, we had also had success finding rentals in Barcelona (ultimately, decided not to do that move), and this city was where we were asked by an agent to create a renter’s profile, so we began to add this component to our paperwork offerings. We did the deposit paperwork and paid the money, and returned home to Murcia. We later moved our things, once again, with a moving company from Murcia to Madrid.
One thing in this lease that was different from our first two leases, and from what the law stipulates (unless otherwise stated in the lease), was that the owner requested a 60 day notice if we were going to move out before the end of the first year. After the first year, it would go back to a 30 day notice. They had also told us verbally that they were living in the USA, and may return to Spain, to live in the apartment in 2-3 years, so we were informed and aware of that possibility, but given our history of frequent moves… it didn’t concern us at all.
After one year of living in Madrid, we had, for the first time, an increase in our rent, with notice given via email I believe, but it could have been text message. We had already been thinking of moving to Zaragoza, and had made a few phone calls for rentals, but at this point we decided we were definitely going all in on trying to move to Zaragoza, because the rent cause was extraordinary, and we could not stomach an increase. That was the final straw to push us into the decision.
Lease Number 4: Zaragoza (2024)
As we had done in the last two moves, we called agents from Idealista and Habitaclia, from our current home, which at this point was in Madrid. By now, we felt we had a lot of experience in this process, and we really utilized everything that we had learned throughout the previous 3 years in Spain and moving, at that time, between three different cities. This was going to be our fourth city, but also a return back to our original destination.
We made our phone calls, we landed with a few options that were willing to rent to us as holders of residency via the non lucrative visa (this was challenging each time, but in a city like Zaragoza, the terminology was unheard of).
Ultimately, the rental we were most interested in was actually advertised as “furnished”, but it had everything we were looking for- including that we were adding something onto our list: a community area for kids. We called and asked if they would be willing to rent it unfurnished. After a few back-and-forth phone calls, they said yes. We also asked about whether they would add air conditioners to the rooms missing them, or if we could. The agent said he was sure that something could be worked out with that. They were aware of our financial situation, they had already pre-approved us for the pagos seguros (commonly done in advance, but not always), and made an appointment for us. They told us that they had a family traveling from another city to see the apartment at such and such a time, so we asked if we could get to the city sooner, could we see it first? They said yes… and so we bought the train tickets and made the trip the very next day. Once again, I will remind you, that you must be ready to GO when you START. You can not delay, or you will lose out.
Have your paperwork ready, have your funds ready for transfer. When you see the first place that can work for you, jump on it by arranging the deposit paperwork and paying the deposit. Once you do this, they take the listing down and stop showing it. If you don’t, then they don’t.
We arrived to the apartment, & we liked everything- we just needed to confirm the air conditioner situation. The owner and his son were at the apartment to meet us, and agreed they would install the air conditioners. Once we got back home to Madrid, they sent the deposit paperwork, indicating they would add the air conditioners before our move in date. We sent the deposit via Wise, and signed the paperwork.
A few days later, the agent contacted us and said the owner was requesting that we pay the partial month of rent (we had asked for an odd lease start date), and the first full month of rent, due to the fact that having 3-4 air conditioners installed was very expensive. We agreed and sent more money to them a bit earlier than we had planned, but it was going to be paid anyway. At this point, we had also submitted a 30 day notice to our current landlord in Madrid.
Prior to moving into the apartment, they sent the lease to us. Within the lease, they had included some stipulations about canceling the lease. The stipulations were that if we canceled the lease at any point before it officially ended (5 years later), we would have to pay one month of rent for every year that we had left in the lease. Leases here are auto-renewed for 5 years, so we obviously did not want this in a lease, and had not had it up until this point. We just told them we didn’t want that, we would not do it, and they called back and said ok, and took it out.
Fast forward to moving into our apartment in Zaragoza- we arrived prior to the moving trucks, to find that nothing had been removed from the house, but the air conditioners were done and in working order. Fortunately, we had arrived hours before the moving company, since we came via fast train, and they had to drive. Previously, the agent had video called us and “tagged” every item that had to be removed, but it was the owner who had not gotten the actual stuff taken out on time. The agent contact him, and they arranged immediately to get the stuff out, before the moving truck arrived (every moving truck situation went consistently the same except for this one, maybe I will write about that one day).
It was stressful, but it did get done.
We have now been in the same apartment for two years- our longest amount of time in one place since moving to Spain- and almost our longest amount of time since leaving the USA in 2018. Yes, that is 7 + years of moving every two or less years- within cities, to knew cities, and to different countries! In Spain, we have had one rent increase of about 2.5% on this current lease, which occurred at the two year mark, making this the second lease that we were given an increase on. We have a great relationship with the owner, as we have also had with every other landlord that we have had in Spain. We believe that is because of our boundaries with renting. When we find that an agent or owner is asking for more financially than is legal, we don’t rent from them, we move on. If they aren’t willing to work with us on things that need to be done, like the air conditioners, or other little things (like getting that extra deposit back early), then we move on. This helps us to find people with solid integrity and character, and we have been successful with that thus far.
I hope this write up has made you feel informed about some different situations that can happen, and that you can set boundaries, stick to them, and also ask for things that may not seem straight forward, or even evident in the initial listing. Moving to a new country and learning how things work is maddening, but if you are patient and intentional, it will work out well for you. Remember, if it seems too good to be true, then it probably is!
Good luck!
