This new Law will try to speed-up some Court Proceedings, being noteworthy the following changes:
1.- MONITORIO TRIALS. The Court fee is waived in those cases when the claimed amount is below €3000. A new Court fee of €50 is established for the rest of the monitorio cases and only for those subject by law.
The maximum amount is removed; which means that any debt can be claimed through this process, regardless of the amount, as long as they are dully documented by invoices, receipts, delivery notes etc.
2.- In terms of APPEALS, it cancels the preparation process, that previously announced that an appeal was being prepared and a time period granted to have it actually interposed. Now the appeal shall be filed directly and the time period is expected to be cut down to only 10 days. This will substantially shorten the time for us, lawyers, to be able to work and file our appeals.
Also among the measures taken aiming to reduce the number of appeals; those Court Orders for Verbal Proceedings in amounts not exceeding 3000 Euros are not subject to appeal.
3.) But our main goal for this article is to highlight the changes in the EVICTION PROCESS. The evictions for non payment of rents and due amounts will be handle in a similar way to the MONITORIO PROCESS, so if the lessee, upon receipt of the claim, does not vacate the property, fails to pay or does not oppose the landlord’s arguments, then it will directly go on to the eviction.
The date to leave the property and the eviction date, will be communicated on the first request done by the court, which could be the only communication received by the respondent, before the eviction takes place.
This will often avoid holding a hearing and will directly lead to the eviction of the lessee (unless opposition is presented); the Landlord will be able to continue requesting payment for the due rents and amounts in an execution process.
This means that with this new change, not yet in force, the eviction process could take very little time for the lessee not complying with the payments obligations, i.e. maybe just a few weeks from the date when the claim is admitted and assigned to Court, which undoubtedly is good news for owners who let their properties.
CLICK: for legal advice about Tenancy agreements and disputes, eviction process in Spain.
In any case, we remind the landlords the importance of keeping in their records the following:
1.) Copies of the NIE, passport or other identification number for the tenant;
2.) Contact details
3.) List of assets when possible
4.) Original letting contract signed by both parties on each and every page.
5.) Rental payment receipts.
6.) Utilities bills for the money owned by the tenant.
Should any reader find himself or herself in this situation or similar please do not hesitate to contact us and the appropriate advice will be provided.
The information provided in this article is not intended to be legal advice, but merely conveys general information related to legal issues.
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