Rent to buy

Rent-to-own is an excellent opportunity for those who wish to acquire a home but do not have the necessary financial means for an immediate purchase. This arrangement allows them to rent the property for a set period, with the option to buy it at the end of the contract. However, it is important to remember that this type of transaction requires the involvement of a lawyer specialising in property law, to ensure that all clauses and conditions are drafted clearly and legally. This will help to avoid future conflicts and ensure a satisfactory experience when acquiring your own home.

On more than one occasion, we find ourselves in a situation where we like a property, but we cannot afford to buy it. It is then, after a long talk with the owner, that we convince them to rent us the property, including an option to buy in our favour at a later date in the contract. We've succeeded, we have the property we wanted, it will just take a little longer to be ours outright, but at least we are enjoying it already.

Everything seems great, but what happens when the landlord informs us, before we exercise the purchase option, that they need the property for themselves? This is the reality experienced by many citizens who sign this type of contract, including our clients, who, after more than 2 years in their home, were informed by the landlord and owner that they needed the property for themselves.

Faced with this situation, we have two options: to resign ourselves or to fight for our home. The first thing we must do is analyse the contract. In our client's contract, it was expressly stated that the landlord could, in accordance with the Urban Tenancies Law, once the first year of the contract had elapsed, request the property for themselves. Therefore, and if, according to the literal wording of the law and the contract, they can take away our home, what can we do? Let's focus on the facts. What was the real will of the parties? This is what we considered at FA Abogados to determine our client's options.

Working on the facts, and giving precedence to the true will of the parties over the literal wording of the contract, we managed to invalidate the landlord and owner's communication to evict our clients. In other words, we managed to prove that the landlord's intention was none other than to terminate the lease agreement, preventing our clients from exercising the purchase option, in order to then sell the property to a third party for a higher price than that stipulated in the purchase option.

„The result? Our clients were able to exercise the purchase option and today they are happy owners of the home in which, 3 years ago, they entered with the hope that one day it would be theirs.“

At FA Abogados, we specialise in property law and would be delighted to assist you with cases such as the one described, either from the outset by drafting a lease with option to purchase agreement with all the necessary guarantees, or in resolving a dispute once a problem has arisen.

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The main aim of this publication is purely for informational purposes. It is not intended in any way to substitute professional legal advice, for which we must first study your particular case.