A Spanish owner tried to hold the former tenants legally responsible after the house he had rented to them ended up illegally occupied by third parties. The landlord filed a lawsuit against the former tenants in the Court of First Instance No. 1 of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, requesting eviction and payment of accumulated rent. The property owner claimed that the keys he received could not open the door, considering that possession of the property had never been truly returned to him.
The case reached the Provincial Court of Barcelona. According to the ruling of July 9, the tenants had previously notified the owner that they intended to terminate the lease contract, respecting the 30-day notice period provided for in the Spanish Urban Leases Law. On the day of the notification, the tenants handed over possession of the dwelling at the offices of the company Alquiler Seguro and just three days later the contract already appeared as terminated on the company's website.
The court rejected the owner's request. For the judges, when the eviction action was filed, the lease contract had already ended and the former tenants had already returned possession of the property. According to the Spanish Civil Code, the delivery of the keys constituted a symbolic act of restitution of possession, making it possible to consider the house returned even if the keys were not the originals. The court considered that there was no evidence that the former tenants had any connection to the people who subsequently occupied the house illegally.
The Provincial Court confirmed the decision of the first instance court, but the ruling SAP B 5738/2026 was not yet final and could be subject to a cassation appeal. While the owner could not demand rent from the former tenants, he could still claim any damages related to replacing the lock and obtaining new keys.
