Extraordinary extension of housing lease contracts in accordance with Royal Decree - Law 2/2021, of January 26. The problem of the disposal of the rented dwelling during the extraordinary extension.

Abstract

Royal Decree Law 2/2021 modifies again article 2 of Royal Decree Law 11/2020 so that those lease contracts that expire between April 2, 2020, the date of entry into force of Royal Decree Law 11/2020 and on May 8, 2021 (the date on which the second state of alarm declared by Royal Decree 926/2020, of October 25 and extended by Royal Decree 956/2020, of November 3, ends), may be extended extraordinarily for a period of 6 months from the expiration date. Said extension must be requested by the lessee, being then obligatory for the lessor, unless the parties exclude it by means of a modification or termination agreement of the contract that could have the scope and content determined by the parties (art. 1255 CC). The nature of this extension is that of a forced conventional extension, the nature of a legal or tacit extension being excluded, therefore the rules of Law 29/1994, in the wording given by Law 4/2013 relating to voluntary and forced sale of the rented dwelling (arts. 13 and 14 LAU) are not applicable, and the regulation of this issue must be referred to the Civil Code as a supplementary right (art. 4.2 Law 29/1994, in the wording given by Law 4/2013) and by therefore to article 1571 CC, which establishes the right of the buyer to extinguish the lease and the possibility of the lessee to demand compensation for damages from the lessor-seller. The extraordinary extension would exclude the application of the suspension of the launch due to the expiration of the contract in the case of a vulnerable tenant, which could only occur for those procedures based on the expiration of the contract between March 14, 2020 and April 1, 2020, dates during which a situation of vulnerability could have arisen derived from the effects of Covid - 19 without the possibility of forcibly extending the stay of the tenant and his family in the rented home.