Winter lets in Spain after the repeal of the October 2026 decree: the seasonal contract is back, and what to write in it

Every October the same couple from Bergen collects the keys of the same flat in Costa del Silencio, in the south of Tenerife. The contract is two pages the owner downloaded in 2019 and has printed each autumn since: «contrato de arrendamiento de temporada», 1 November to 31 March, two months of deposit, the agency's fee split in half. On 1 October 2026 a decree-law made that form describe a contract that no longer existed: Real Decreto-ley 26/2026 took the seasonal let out of the Urban Leases Act and put a «temporary housing» lease in its place. On 2 October the Congress repealed the decree, by 178 votes to 172, and the seasonal let is back in the Act, word for word. This note is for the owner who lets a flat in Tenerife or Fuerteventura for the winter, and for the tenant who rents one. It says what a seasonal let is and how a court tells it from a housing lease, what the contract decides and what the Act decides for it, how the season ends, where the border with the holiday let runs, and what to do with a contract signed while the decree was law. Quotations are in Spanish with the reading in English.

Repealed on 2 October: what came back

For a few days the Act had no seasonal let. The decree deleted the words that created it and wrote, inside the housing rules, a temporary-housing lease that needed a written and provable reason, had to last more than thirty-one days and could be signed twice in a row with the same tenant, not three times. The Congress voted the decree down on 2 October, and with the repeal the Act reads again as it did on 30 September. Our note on the October decrees explains the vote, what else fell with it and what the repeal leaves open.

What came back is one sentence of article 3. Among the leases for a use other than housing, the Act counts los arrendamientos de fincas urbanas celebrados por temporada, sea ésta de verano o cualquier otra — leases of urban property signed for a season, be it summer or any other (article 3.2). Everything else in this note follows from that classification: a winter let is a lease under the Act, and it is not a housing lease.

The purpose, not the calendar

The Act defines the housing lease by what it is for: a habitable building whose primary purpose is satisfacer la necesidad permanente de vivienda del arrendatario — to satisfy the tenant's permanent need for a home (article 2.1). The seasonal let is the other case, and the Supreme Court described it long ago in words it has repeated since: a home taken para habitar transitoriamente y por razones diversas — to live in temporarily and for various reasons. The test is not the length of the stay: el requisito de la temporalidad de la ocupación guarda relación, no con el plazo de duración simplemente cronológico, sino con la finalidad a que va encaminado el arrendamiento — the requirement that the occupation be temporary relates not to the merely chronological length of the term but to the purpose the lease serves (judgment 1074/1999 of 15 December, repeating a doctrine formed under the 1964 Act).

Two things follow. A contract of five months can be a season, and so can one of ten, if the tenant is there for a course, a posting or a winter and has a home to return to. And the name on the first page decides nothing: the same judgment says the answer is found debiendo tenerse en cuenta los hechos de los que cabe inferir la intención de las partes — by taking into account the facts from which the intention of the parties can be inferred. A «seasonal» contract for a tenant who has no other home, signed again as soon as it ends, is the kind of fact that turns a season into a housing lease, with its minimum of five years.

The couple from Bergen are the plain case. They keep their home in Norway, they come for the winter and they leave in spring. That is a season, this year and next year, however many winters they come.

What the contract decides, and what the Act decides for it

Because a seasonal let is a lease for a use other than housing, the parties write most of its rules themselves. Such leases se rigen por la voluntad de las partes, en su defecto, por lo dispuesto en el título III de la presente ley y, supletoriamente, por lo dispuesto en el Código Civil — are governed by the will of the parties, failing that by Title III of this Act and, in a supplementary way, by the Civil Code (article 4.3). Two parts of the Act are not open to agreement: its first title, which says which lease is which, and its fourth, on the deposit and the written form (article 4.1).

The right column is why the label matters. Every line of it is a rule the tenant of a home cannot sign away, because in a housing lease a clause that leaves the tenant worse off than the Act is void (article 6). In a seasonal let the contract comes first, and what it does not say is filled in by Title III, which borrows the housing rules on repairs, works and the tenant's right to buy when the flat is sold (articles 30 and 31), and by the Civil Code.

The money

The deposit is the one figure the parties do not choose. On signing, será obligatoria la exigencia y prestación de fianza en metálico en cantidad equivalente a una mensualidad de renta en el arrendamiento de viviendas y de dos en el arrendamiento para uso distinto del de vivienda — a cash deposit must be required and paid, equal to one month's rent in housing leases and two in leases for a use other than housing (article 36.1). The two months on the owner's form are the law. The balance must be returned when the keys are handed back, and it earns legal interest once a month has passed without its being repaid (article 36.4). Any guarantee on top of the deposit is a matter for the contract (article 36.5).

The rest is for the parties to write: who pays the electricity and the water, whether the community fees are in the rent, who pays the agency. The half fee the couple from Bergen pay each autumn is valid because the contract says so; the rule that puts that cost on the landlord belongs to the housing lease.

How the season ends

A seasonal let ends by itself. The Civil Code says a lease made for a fixed time concluye el día prefijado sin necesidad de requerimiento — ends on the day fixed, with no need for a demand (article 1565). The owner gives no notice and the tenant has no extension to claim.

The trap is on the other side of that date. The Code presumes a tacit renewal when permanece el arrendatario disfrutando quince días de la cosa arrendada con aquiescencia del arrendador — the tenant goes on enjoying the thing let for fifteen days with the landlord's acquiescence (article 1566) — and the renewal runs month by month when the rent is monthly (article 1581). The judgment of 1999 applied exactly that to a seasonal let, which es susceptible de tácita reconducción al acabar el plazo pactado — is open to tacit renewal when the agreed term ends. A couple who stay into April with the owner's blessing are on a new lease that renews every month, and every unwritten month is one more fact for a court that is asked whether the flat has become a home. If they want to stay until May, the answer is an extension in writing, signed before 31 March, with its own last day.

Leaving before the end is the tenant's weak point. The Act gives the tenant of a home the right to go after six months; it gives the seasonal tenant none. The contract binds for its term, because contracts tienen fuerza de ley entre las partes contratantes — have the force of law between the contracting parties (Civil Code, article 1091) — and the rent of the remaining months is owed unless the contract provides a way out. A clause that says how and at what cost the tenant may leave is worth negotiating before signing, not in February. The owner, for his part, can end the lease early only for a breach: unpaid rent or deposit, deliberate damage or works done without consent, and activities that are a nuisance, unhealthy, dangerous or unlawful (article 35).

The border with the holiday let

Not every furnished flat let for weeks or months is a lease. The Act excludes the let of a whole furnished home that is marketed in tourist channels cuando esté sometida a un régimen específico, derivado de su normativa sectorial turística — when it is subject to a specific regime derived from the tourism rules of its sector (article 5.e). On the islands that regime is the Canary holiday-let law we describe in our note on Ley 6/2025, with its registration and its requirements.

The decree had drawn that border at thirty-one days; with the repeal the Act again fixes no number. On the islands a figure does remain, in the regional law: since August 2026 it presumes that a home let for thirty-one days or less is a holiday let unless the contract records why the tenant needs temporary accommodation (Ley 6/2025, articles 11 and 12). What separates the two is how the flat is offered and under which rules. A winter agreed directly with a couple who come back every year is a lease; the same flat sold by the night on a platform is a holiday let, and needs to be registered as one. Each stay has to meet the rules of its own regime.

A contract signed between 1 October and the repeal

Some winter contracts were signed while the decree was law, and they were written for a lease that no longer exists: a stated reason, one month of deposit instead of two, the tenant's right to leave after a month. The repeal comes with no transitional rule, and what such a contract is worth now is not settled. The simplest cure, when both sides agree, is to sign it again as a seasonal contract under the Act as it stands. Where they do not agree, the contract should be read by a lawyer before either side relies on it.

Contracts signed before 1 October have nothing to cure. The decree would have ended them without extension on their last day; that sentence fell with the rest, and a seasonal contract signed in September is what it always was.

A checklist for this winter's contract

• Call it what it is. A lease for a season under article 3.2 of the Act, with its first and last day.
• Write down where home is. The tenant's address abroad and the fact that they keep it; the purpose of the stay is what a court reads.
• Take the legal deposit. Two months' rent in cash, to be returned when the keys come back.
• Agree the way out. Whether the tenant may leave early, with how much notice and at what cost; the Act gives no right to.
• Put the costs in the contract. Utilities, community fees, the agency and small repairs are all for the parties to settle.
• End on paper. A dated handover of the keys on the last day, and no staying on without a signed extension.
• Keep the two markets apart. A flat offered to tourists by the night is a holiday let and must be registered as one.

A seasonal contract is a short document built on one fact: the tenant's home is somewhere else. Write that fact down, date both ends of the stay, and the form the owner downloaded in 2019 will do what he always thought it did.

Our property team at the Costa Adeje and Corralejo offices handles purchases, sales and leases on both islands, and can draft or review a seasonal contract or one signed while the decree was law; the consultation is a paid one, quoted in advance. The service is described on our property law page, and the contact page has both offices' hours.

Common questions

Is the seasonal contract valid again?

Yes. Real Decreto-ley 26/2026 removed it from the Urban Leases Act on 1 October 2026 and the Congress repealed that decree on 2 October. The Act again treats a let for a season as a lease for a use other than housing, governed first by what the parties agree.

How long can a seasonal let last?

The Act sets no minimum and no maximum. What makes a let seasonal is its purpose: a temporary stay by a tenant whose permanent home is elsewhere. Five winter months fit; so can an academic year. A contract that in fact gives the tenant his only home is a housing lease whatever its length.

Can I let to the same couple every winter?

Yes, and there is nothing to count: the limit of two contracts in a row belonged to the repealed decree. Each winter is its own contract, with its own dates. What matters every time is that the tenants keep their home elsewhere and that the contract says so.

How much deposit can I ask for?

The legal deposit of a seasonal let is two months' rent, in cash, and it is compulsory. Any further guarantee is whatever the contract agrees. The deposit is returned when the keys are handed back, less what the tenant owes; after a month without repayment it earns legal interest.

What if the tenants stay after the last day?

If they stay fifteen days with your acquiescence, the Civil Code presumes a tacit renewal, month by month when the rent is monthly. To avoid it, either recover the keys on the last day or sign a written extension with a new end date before the first contract runs out.

This article is general information as of 2 October 2026, not advice on any particular contract. The texts cited are the Urban Leases Act (Ley 29/1994), articles 2 to 6, 9 to 11, 14, 20, 21, 29 to 31, 35 and 36, in the wording in force before Real Decreto-ley 26/2026 of 29 September (Official State Gazette of 30 September 2026), which the Congress repealed on 2 October 2026 by a resolution published in the Gazette of that day; the Civil Code, articles 1091, 1565, 1566 and 1581; and judgment 1074/1999 of the Supreme Court, of 15 December. The Canary rule on lets of thirty-one days or less is in Ley 6/2025, articles 11 and 12, added by Ley 7/2026 of 31 July. A consultation with our property team is a paid service.