Tenant Not Paying in the Canary Islands? Landlord Guide

What can you do the day the rent stops?

Changing the locks, cutting off water or electricity or removing the tenant's belongings can amount to the offence of coercion (coacciones), with a higher penalty when the aim is to prevent someone's lawful enjoyment of their home (art. 172.1 of the Criminal Code). Only a court can end the tenancy and order the tenant out.

What you can do from day one:

• Gather the contract, a record of payments received and missed, and the details of the deposit (fianza: one month's rent for a residential let, art. 36.1 LAU).
• Check whether the contract names a guarantor (fiador or avalista solidario). The guarantor can be sued in the same case after a payment demand that has gone unpaid (art. 437.4.3.ª LEC).
• Talk to the tenant: a temporary problem may be solved with a written payment plan.

Step 1: the burofax payment demand

A burofax is a Spanish postal service that certifies a letter's content and delivery. It matters because, as a rule, a tenant can stop an eviction once by paying everything owed within the court's deadline (enervación, art. 22.4 LEC), but loses that option if you demanded payment by any reliable means at least 30 days before filing and it was still unpaid at filing.

The Supreme Court has set out the requirements:

• A clear demand for rent or amounts treated as rent, followed by 30 days without payment (STS 302/2014, of 28 May 2014, ECLI:ES:TS:2014:2136).
• It need not warn that the contract will be terminated or that the tenant will lose the right to stop the eviction by paying (STS of 23 June 2014, ECLI:ES:TS:2014:2475).
• A burofax never collected after a delivery notice still counts if the tenant was avoiding it; the 30 days run from the notice (STS of 22 June 2022, ECLI:ES:TS:2022:2462).

The extraordinary stay for vulnerable tenants (art. 22.6 LEC), however, can apply even after a valid demand.

Step 2: the compulsory attempt to negotiate

Since 3 April 2025, as a general rule, a civil claim is only admissible if the parties have first tried an appropriate dispute resolution method (MASC, from its Spanish initials) on the same subject (art. 5.1 of Organic Law 1/2025). Eviction for non-payment is not among the exceptions in art. 5.2. Direct negotiation, negotiation between lawyers, mediation or a confidential binding offer (oferta vinculante confidencial) all qualify.

If the tenant does not expressly accept a confidential binding offer within one month, or a longer period you set, it lapses and the requirement is met. The claim states that the offer was sent and attaches proof of sending and receipt, without revealing its content (art. 17.4 of Organic Law 1/2025). Courts have accepted offers sent by burofax, even uncollected ones when that was the recipient's fault (Provincial Court of Málaga, order of 9 January 2026, ECLI:ES:APMA:2026:48A; Provincial Court of Barcelona, order of 22 July 2026, ECLI:ES:APB:2026:5251A). Send the payment demand and the confidential offer as separate documents, which can run in parallel: the court sees the first, never the content of the second.

Step 3: the eviction claim and the 10-day notice

The claim goes to the civil section of the Tribunal de Instancia (first-instance court) where the property is located (art. 52.1.7.º LEC), through the simplified procedure (juicio verbal) whatever the amount owed (art. 250.1.1.º LEC). A court representative (procurador) and a lawyer are required (arts. 23 and 31 LEC).

The claim must state whether the tenant can still stop the eviction by paying (art. 439.3 LEC), whether the property is the occupant's main home and whether you are a large-scale landlord (gran tenedor, art. 3.k of Law 12/2023); if you are not, you must attach a Land Registry certificate (art. 439.6 LEC). You may also offer to write off all or part of the debt and costs if the tenant leaves voluntarily by a date you set, at least 15 days after service (art. 437.3 LEC).

Once the claim is admitted, the court clerk (letrado de la Administración de Justicia) gives the tenant 10 days to leave, pay or oppose the claim (art. 438.5 LEC). That notice already sets the hearing date and the exact day and time of the eviction (lanzamiento). If the tenant does nothing, the clerk issues a decree ending the case and the eviction goes ahead as scheduled; not opposing counts as consent to terminating the lease. If the tenant opposes, there is a hearing; the eviction date is then set within 30 days of the hearing date and goes ahead if the judgment is in your favour and is not appealed (art. 438.6 LEC).

When the property is the tenant's main home, the court informs the housing and social services authorities. If they confirm vulnerability, the court may suspend the case for up to two months if the landlord is an individual, or four if it is a legal entity (arts. 441.5 and 441.6 LEC).

How long does an eviction take in Las Palmas or Tenerife?

There is no reliable figure for the courts of Gran Canaria or Tenerife, so the firm does not quote one. The law fixes these periods:

No "express eviction" comes with a guaranteed timescale. The total depends on what the law does not fix: court workload, service of the claim, any opposition or appeal and any vulnerability procedure.

Has Spain banned evictions until 2030?

There is no general ban, but two rules in Royal Decree-Law 29/2026 matter.

The suspension until 31 December 2030 (art. 2) only comes into play for ordinary landlords when the extraordinary stay does not apply. A court can then suspend the eviction of a vulnerable tenant without alternative housing, with a review every 12 months and for three years at most, and an individual landlord receives compensation from the administration capped at the unpaid rent, utilities and costs. It does not apply where the landlord is an individual who owns two homes or fewer, nor where the landlord's own vulnerability prevails (art. 2.2).

The extraordinary stay (art. 22.6 LEC) has no exception for small landlords. If the tenant proves economic vulnerability, the case and the eviction are suspended while the administration has two months to offer suitable housing or pay the arrears and costs. If it pays, the case ends and the lease continues. If it does neither, it automatically takes over the tenant's debt, there is no eviction, and the lease runs until it expires while the vulnerability lasts. This stay does not use up the tenant's one chance to pay.

For an individual who owns one or two homes, then, the suspension until 2030 does not apply, but the extraordinary stay can: you may be paid by the administration instead of recovering the property before the lease ends.

Do you need to travel to Spain?

Usually not. You grant a power of attorney to the procurador, either before a notary or before a court clerk, in person or electronically (art. 24.1 LEC). If you sign before a notary in another country that, like Spain, is party to the Hague Apostille Convention of 5 October 1961, the document will normally need an apostille issued there (art. 3 of the Convention). Documents not in Spanish must be filed with a translation (art. 144 LEC).

If the tenant does not oppose, there is no hearing. Hearings are preferably held by video link where the court has the means (art. 129 bis.1 LEC), but a party called to give evidence must, as a rule, attend in person. The law allows exceptions, and the court decides whether one applies to someone living abroad (art. 129 bis.2 LEC).

Can you recover the unpaid rent and the legal costs?

The arrears go in the same claim (art. 437.4.3.ª LEC). If the tenant does not respond, the decree ending the case orders them to pay the costs and the rent that falls due until you recover possession (art. 438.5 LEC). If the tenant pays to stop the eviction, they also pay the costs (art. 22.5 LEC). After a contested hearing, the party that loses on every point pays the costs as a rule (art. 394.1 LEC), but the lawyer's fees it has to cover are capped at one third of the value of the claim unless it acted recklessly (art. 394.3 LEC).

You only have to return the balance of the deposit owed to the tenant (art. 36.4 LAU). Under art. 36.7 LAU, added by Royal Decree-Law 29/2026, if no end-of-tenancy document is signed, the home is presumed to have been returned in good condition unless you prove otherwise. If the tenant leaves after the court's notice without paying, you can ask the court to keep the eviction appointment so that the condition of the property is formally recorded (art. 438.5 LEC).

A judgment is only as good as the tenant's assets or income. If the tenant is declared insolvent (concurso de acreedores, the procedure behind the Second Chance Law debt relief), no new individual enforcement proceedings can be brought against the tenant's assets (art. 142 of the Insolvency Act, TRLC).

Squatter or tenant: why the difference matters

A tenant has a contract, so the route is the eviction claim described above, negotiation step included (art. 250.1.1.º LEC).

A squatter (okupa) entered without your consent. An individual owner can ask for the immediate return of the home (art. 250.1.4.º LEC), even against unknown occupants (art. 437.3 bis LEC). If you ask for immediate possession, the occupants have five days to produce a title justifying their occupation; if they cannot, the court orders them out (art. 441.1 bis LEC). No prior negotiation is needed (art. 5.2.e of Organic Law 1/2025). Squatting can also be an offence: entering or staying in someone else's dwelling (art. 202 of the Criminal Code) or occupying a property that is not a dwelling (art. 245.2).

Does rent guarantee insurance help?

It can cover part of the loss, but it does not replace the court case. Under contracts signed since 8 October 2026, the tenant can never be required to take out rent default insurance or similar cover (art. 36.5 LAU, as worded by Royal Decree-Law 29/2026, pending validation), so you take it out yourself as policyholder. Before signing:

• Answer the insurer's questionnaire accurately: an inaccurate answer can reduce the payout, or rule it out altogether in cases of fraud or gross negligence (art. 10 of the Insurance Contract Act, LCS).
• Look for the limiting clauses, such as waiting periods, minimum tenant income or a cap on months covered; they must be highlighted and specifically accepted in writing (art. 3 LCS).
• Report the claim within seven days unless the policy allows longer (art. 16 LCS).

Some agencies offer guaranteed rent (renta garantizada): a fixed monthly payment whatever the tenant does, on the agency's terms. The firm does not offer it; its management includes the legal action instead.

How the firm handles unpaid rent

ALY Abogados is the law firm of Lázaro Héctor Amable Méndez, a lawyer registered with the Las Palmas Bar (ICALPA membership no. 5231) who also acts as an insolvency administrator. The published fees for the firm's rental management service for the Canary Islands are 8% to 12% of the monthly rent for long-term lets and 15% to 25% of income for holiday lets, depending on the property and the services; the initial assessment is free and, if the tenant stops paying, the arrears claim and the eviction are included at no additional fee from the firm. Management fees are subject to IGIC (the Canary Islands indirect tax) at the general rate of 7% (art. 51.1.d of Law 4/2012 of the Canary Islands). The firm acts from the first missed month; it does not promise timescales or outcomes, which depend on the court and on the tenant's circumstances.

Before your next let, see the firm's guide to renting out property in the Canary Islands; if you live abroad, the guide to rental income tax for non-residents covers Form 210 (modelo 210). To discuss your case, request an appointment and the firm will propose a day and time.

Sources

• Civil Procedure Act (Ley 1/2000, LEC): BOE-A-2000-323
• Royal Decree-Law 29/2026, of 6 October: BOE-A-2026-20823
• Urban Leases Act (Ley 29/1994, LAU): BOE-A-1994-26003
• Organic Law 1/2025, of 2 January: BOE-A-2025-76
• Law 12/2023, of 24 May, on the right to housing: BOE-A-2023-12203
• Criminal Code (Organic Law 10/1995): BOE-A-1995-25444
• Insurance Contract Act (Ley 50/1980, LCS): BOE-A-1980-22501
• Insolvency Act (Royal Legislative Decree 1/2020, TRLC): BOE-A-2020-4859
• Law 4/2012, of 25 June, of the Canary Islands (IGIC): BOE-A-2012-9282
• Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 abolishing legalisation (apostille), Spanish instrument of ratification: BOE-A-1978-24413
• Case law (CENDOJ): ECLI:ES:TS:2014:2136, ECLI:ES:TS:2014:2475, ECLI:ES:TS:2022:2462, ECLI:ES:APMA:2026:48A and ECLI:ES:APB:2026:5251A.