The lease rules that came in with the Private Residential Leases Act do more than force a contract onto paper.
They also decide how much your rent can go up while you are living there.
A year is the minimum term
A lease for someone’s main home runs for at least one year.
Shorter terms exist for a few narrow cases, such as students and short-term workers, and the contract has to say so.
The tenant can walk away early after an initial period by giving notice. The owner cannot.
One rise a year at most
Rent can go up once in a year, and only where the contract allows it.
If the contract says nothing about increases, there is no increase for the length of the lease.
Read that clause before you sign. It is the one line that decides what year two costs you.
Five per cent is the ceiling
Any rise has to follow the property price index published by the National Statistics Office.
It also cannot pass five per cent of the rent you paid the year before.
Those are two separate limits and both apply. Whichever comes out lower is the one that binds.
What the cap does not do
It protects you inside your lease. It does nothing about the price the next tenant is asked for.
When a lease ends, the owner can put the place back on the market at whatever it will pay.
A one-year lease therefore gives you a year of certainty and no more. If you want longer, negotiate a longer term at the start.
Deposits and notice
The deposit is capped by the length of the lease, and it has to be returned within a set period after you leave.
Notice periods are written into the law rather than left to the contract. Both sides have to give notice in writing.
Keep the inventory and the photographs you took on day one. Deposit disputes turn on them.
It only works if the lease was registered
All of this hangs on the lease being registered with the Housing Authority.
An unregistered lease is null and void, and none of these protections attach to it.
Registration is the owner’s job, not yours. Ask for the number anyway and keep it.
If a landlord refuses, that tells you what the rest of the tenancy is likely to be like.
This is general information, not legal advice. The Housing Authority handles disputes and the Rent Regulation Board hears the cases.
