Civil law and eviction lawyers in Villanueva de la Cañada

Civil law is the drawer that holds the disputes which are neither criminal nor employment matters: a tenant who stops paying, an insurer that refuses cover, a contract the other side does not perform, a residents’ association making a claim, damage that nobody wants to answer for. They have two things in common. The first is that there is almost always a route outside court before litigation, and using it well saves months. The second is that the time limits start running before you know you have a problem.

Tenancies and evictions

Eviction for non-payment of rent

When the tenant stops paying, the usual procedure combines the desahucio — the eviction claim — and the claim for the rent owed in a single set of proceedings. It is a juicio verbal (the shorter form of civil proceedings, decided after a single hearing) with rules of its own: if the defendant neither pays nor files a defence in time, the case ends by order of the court and a date is fixed for the lanzamiento, the physical removal of the tenant. Enervación — paying everything owed and thereby stopping the eviction — can only be used on the conditions the law sets out and, as a general rule, once only. Knowing whether your tenant can still do this or not changes the strategy completely.

Since the housing legislation of Ley 12/2023, the claim must in addition meet extra requirements where the landlord is a gran tenedor — a large-scale landlord as defined by that Act — or where the tenant is in a situation of vulnerability; leaving them out can mean the claim is not admitted at all.

Eviction at the end of the term, or for precario

Where the contract has come to an end and the occupier does not leave, or where somebody occupies the property with no title and pays no rent — precario. These are different procedures from the one above, with requirements of their own.

Claims for rent, utility bills and damage to the property

Unpaid rent, utility accounts left in the owner’s name and damage going beyond ordinary wear and tear are claimed either with the eviction or afterwards, whichever suits better.

If you are the tenant

We also act for tenants: rent increases that are not due, deposits that are not returned, repairs the landlord does not carry out and evictions that have been brought wrongly.

Debt claims and unpaid invoices

An unpaid invoice, a loan between private individuals, building work charged for and never finished. The route depends on the amount and on the documents that exist: the juicio monitorio — the order-for-payment procedure — where the debt is evidenced by documents, and a juicio verbal or full civil proceedings where there is a real dispute on the merits. Before suing we check two things that decide whether it is worth it: whether the debt is time-barred and whether the debtor has anything to pay with. Winning a case against somebody with no assets solves nothing, and we say so before we start.

Claims against insurance companies

An argument with an insurer is rarely about whether the loss happened: it is about how it is classified. And cover depends on the classification.

Contracts, property and civil liability

• Contracts: drafting, review and claims for breach; sales, arras (the deposit paid to hold a sale), building contracts and services.
• Commonhold property: challenges to decisions of the owners’ meeting, special levies, building works and water penetration between flats.
• Civil liability: damage caused by third parties, by animals, by building works or by construction defects.
• Division of jointly owned property and extinción de condominio: where several co-owners — heirs, former partners, business associates — cannot agree on what to do with a property inherited or bought together. If the origin is an estate, it is worth reading our inheritance and probate page as well.