I have commercial premises under an old-style protected tenancy (“renta antigua”): does the lease end when the tenant retires or does it pass to his or her children?

Question

José Manuel Alburquerque · Accepted Answer

If the tenant is an individual and not a company, the lease ends when the tenant retires or dies, unless his or her spouse takes the tenant's place and carries on the same activity in the premises. In that case it lasts until the spouse retires or dies. It can no longer pass to the children, because that possibility only existed until 2014. If the tenant is a company, the lease has already ended, at the latest at the end of 2014. Which leases these are They are leases of commercial premises signed before 9 May 1985 that were still in force on 1 January 1995, when the 1994 “Ley de Arrendamientos Urbanos” (LAU), Spain's current urban tenancies act, came into force. They are governed by the 1964 Act, as amended by the 1994 Act in order to phase them out, under different rules depending on whether the tenant was an individual or a company. If the tenant is an individual The lease ends on the tenant's retirement or death. As long as the tenant neither retires nor dies, it continues. The tenant's spouse can continue it, if he or she takes the tenant's place in the lease and carries on the same activity. The lease then ends on the spouse's retirement or death. The spouse should notify the landlord in writing as soon as possible. The children could only continue if the retirement or death occurred before twenty years had passed since the Act. Even then, the lease ended when those twenty years were up, at the end of 2014. That route is now closed. What to do When you learn that the tenant has retired or died, notify the tenant or his or her heirs in writing that the lease has ended and ask for the premises to be returned to you within a reasonable time. If the spouse tells you that he or she is carrying on, check that the same activity is being maintained. If you continue to collect payments in the meantime, state in writing that you are doing so as compensation for occupation and not as rent, so that nobody can argue that you have accepted a new lease. If there is any doubt about the retirement, for example because the tenant is still working, take advice before acting. If the premises are not returned to you, an attempt at negotiation must be made before bringing a possession claim. A clear demand to vacate offering to discuss timing may be enough. In the meantime, do not change the lock or cut off the utilities.