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Legal notes in plain words — property, inheritance, residency and daily life in the Canary Islands, explained for international readers.
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Living in a tourist complex in the south of Tenerife: the single-operator rule, what an owner can and cannot do, and the window to 2028
A unit in a tourist complex is an accommodation unit, not a home: the Canary tourism Act binds every unit to one operator, the renovation Act forbids turning it into a dwelling, and fines run to 300,000 euros. What the courts decided in Arona and Gran Canaria, the question now before the Supreme Court, the decree-law that lets owners ask for a change of use until March 2028, the bill the Parliament rejected on 14 October 2026, the decree the Government announced, and ten papers to read first.
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The tenant stops paying: eviction for unpaid rent in Spain in 2026, step by step
A landlord's eviction for unpaid rent as the Civil Procedure Act reads after the October 2026 decrees, repealed on 2 October and re-enacted on 8 October pending a vote: the reliable demand that closes the tenant's last-minute payment, what the claim must state about large holders, the tenant's four roads in ten days, the two- or four-month pause for social services, the new two months the administration has to rehouse or pay, and the Judiciary's own figure for the Canary Islands: 11.4 months.
EU citizens moving to the Canaries: the registration certificate, your family's card and permanent residence
The registration certificate is the simplest residence paper Spain issues and the one most EU newcomers forget. This note explains who must ask for it and when, what a worker, a pensioner or a student has to show, how the means test is read in 2026, how a husband or wife from outside the Union gets the family card, what the Supreme Court said about health cover and about absences, what permanent residence requires after five years, and what the certificate does not do.
A Spanish mortgage as a non-resident: what the law protects before you sign
A bank in Spain offers a buyer from abroad a mortgage and a signing date. Before the signature, Ley 5/2019 gives that buyer the same rights as a resident: the papers at least ten calendar days ahead, a free and compulsory session with a notary of their choice, a fixed split of the set-up costs and, when the income is in pounds or francs, the rules on foreign-currency loans. This guide goes through each, with what the bank may attach to the loan and what happens on early repayment or default.
The compensatory pension after divorce in Spain: who gets it, for how long and how it ends
One spouse built a career and the other left a job for the family: when they divorce, Spanish law may give the second a compensatory pension. It is not automatic and has no formula. This guide explains who is entitled, the nine circumstances a judge weighs, when the pension has an end date and when it does not, the separate compensation for work in the home under separation of property, and how the pension changes and ends, with three Supreme Court judgments of 2024, 2025 and 2026 read in full.
Co-owning a property in Spain with your ex or your siblings: how to get out of a proindiviso
A flat bought with a partner who is now an ex, or a parent's house inherited with brothers and sisters: Spanish law lets any owner end the co-ownership at any time. This guide sets out the rules while it lasts, the three ways out without a judge, the division claim as it works in 2026 (negotiation first, an oral trial, the auction), what a right of use over the family home changes, why heirs must divide the estate first and the nine days co-owners have when a share is sold.
When a company director in Spain pays the company's debts out of their own pocket: the two-month rule and the courts in 2026
A limited company limits what its shareholders can lose, not what its director can. When losses leave the equity below half the capital, Spanish law gives the director two months to call the meeting or apply for insolvency; after that the director guarantees the debts the company takes on. This guide follows the rule through the Supreme Court's judgments up to September 2026: which debts count, why acting late does not erase the past and how long a creditor has.