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Tenants Rights

Dear Sir,
I write to bring attention to the outrageous laws for tenants and landlords, where all the rights are for tenants in rental properties and the owners have no rights when letting their properties, particularly when it comes to asking tenants to vacate.

It appears under the current laws that tenants have all rights when being given reasonable notice of one month to two months, that they can refuse to vacate the property and there is nothing the landlord can do to get them out apart from going through a very lengthy court procedure. In the meantime, the owner is out of pocket, being without the rental income and bearing all the utility costs being run up by the tenant. Should the landlord attempt to enter his property on the day of notice and request the tenants to leave and they refuse, he cannot enforce their exit. For example, by removing the tenant's belongings, the tenant can call the police, and the Guardia Civil will arrive and remain at the property until the landlord has returned all the tenant's belongings into his property. The rightful owner, who holds the title deeds, will be informed by the Guardia Civil that he cannot enter his property until the tenants have departed: to do so would be breaking the law.

This is all so unreasonable when a person has purchased a property, pays the associated taxes and rates and maintenance costs, only to end up having no rights to a property he owns.

It is a very attractive proposition to purchase an investment property and let it. Why not as there will always be a demand for rental properties but the law should not be so one-sided but should be in place to protect both parties' rights. As it stands, prospective property investment purchasers beware!

Kind regards,
Alison Reid