Rental lease in Portugal

Hello geo33$L,
I've already answered this at #20 in this topic:
"Documents Required for D-7 Visa to Bring for Consulate Interview"

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.p … 22#4952670

"3. Rent contracts have a minimum term of one year and, at the first renewal, they have to be maintained for another three years, unless the landlord needs the house for himself or his sons. However, the renewal of the contract may be established on other terms, provided that the two parties agree on another period of time."

I add the following:

Law no. 13/2019, of 12 February, amends several diplomas, namely the Civil Code, the New Urban Lease Regime and the legal regime for the execution of works on leased buildings.

- With the amendments to the law, tenancy agreements for permanent housing will now have a mandatory minimum duration of one year, except when they are for non-permanent housing or for special transitional purposes, namely for professional, education and training or tourism reasons.
If they are concluded for shorter periods, they will automatically be extended to the minimum period. Until now, contracts have not had a minimum duration.

In these exceptions, the owner can accept to rent the property for only one month or for any other period.

In all cases, the two parties must negotiate beforehand the term of the lease of the property. If they do not do so and if the document is omitted at this point, the law states that the contract is considered to be signed for a fixed period of two years.

Thank you for your reply. Sorry, asked too many questions in one go in that thread.

GailatLarge  had said "
The lease can only be registered AFTER contract signing and simultaneous payment."

I have heard the contract can be uploaded by the tenant also instead of the landlord at the financas website? At my end,

what do I need? Access to Financas website using my password and copy of contract(to be uploaded). Is that all? Do I the landlord's ID too? How long does it take have the lease registered if paperwork uploaded online?

I arrived from Canada with a visa (first step to getting a D7 visa) and had a contract for a rental which was from October to May, so you do not necessarily need a one year contract.

geo33$L wrote:

GailatLarge  had said "
The lease can only be registered AFTER contract signing and simultaneous payment."

That's just the way it is.

geo33$L wrote:

I have heard the contract can be uploaded by the tenant also instead of the landlord at the financas website? At my end,

what do I need? Access to Financas website using my password and copy of contract(to be uploaded). Is that all? Do I the landlord's ID too? How long does it take have the lease registered if paperwork uploaded online?

These questions are also already answered in the discussion I mentioned above...

It is the landlord who hands over the contract to the tax authorities. The tenant can consult the rent receipts issued.

Even if the landlord cannot deliver or send the receipts to the tenant and at the same time the tenant does not receive proof of payment of the rent from the landlord, there is no problem, as with the possibility of consulting rent receipts on the Finance Portal you will always be able to check which receipts have been issued as well as the declared rent amount.

Here is how you can do this, step by step.

https://www.e-konomista.pt/consultar-re … -financas/

Finance Portal
https://sitfiscal.portaldasfinancas.gov … Destino=TR

You must click on the e-Lease box "e-Arrendamento" and then log in.
Then choose option " Consultar recibos" / consult rental receipts if you are a:

"Locador" = Landlord
"Locatário" = Tenant

As I have also said, landlords under the age of 65 are obliged to communicate rental contracts, or amendments and termination thereof, through the Finance Portal. If the landlord is over 65 years old, he can deliver the contract on paper to the Finanças office, and it is the Finance Officer who loads the contract into the system on behalf of your old and info-excluded landlord...

In case you do not know, when the landlord hands over the contract to the tax authorities, a Stamp Duty tax collection document (Imposto de Selo) is automatically generated so that the landlord has to pay this fee by the end of the month following that in which the lease commences. The fee charged is 10% of the rent.

LorieAnneC wrote:

I arrived from Canada with a visa (first step to getting a D7 visa) and had a contract for a rental which was from October to May, so you do not necessarily need a one year contract.

Thank you for your answer LorieAnneC and welcome to the forum.

I know this is possible but I didn't want to be misleading by saying that the landlord makes a contract for less than a year because he has to, not because he can accept to do it.

As I said before tenancy agreements for permanent housing will now have a mandatory minimum duration of one year, except when they are for non-permanent housing or for special transitional purposes, such as tourism... I honestly don't know if D7 falls within these exceptions. It is very likely to be so. And if for the landlord there is no problem, fine for both.

These short-term contracts happen a lot in the Algarve because it is a tourist area and from October to May it is a low season (excluding this year 2020 completely atypical). I am not surprised that landlords in the Algarve accept to make these contracts, in those months.  In the rest of the country I don't know if this is so frequent. The reason is in a simple matter, the commission of the real estate agents for renting a house, is usually 1 month's rent paid by the landlord, so renting for only 6 months is not very profitable for the landlord... and if he doesn't want to rent, he has that right.

Thank you for the nice welcome. You are absolutely right, June through September is normally quite busy in Algarve... and it is nice in Canada, so it works out for me!

I absolutely love it here, even though my own country 🇨🇦 is beautiful as well.

Cheers!

LorieAnneC wrote:

I arrived from Canada with a visa (first step to getting a D7 visa) and had a contract for a rental which was from October to May, so you do not necessarily need a one year contract.

Thank you LorieAnneC for your post. May I ask if your contract was registered with financas? (if you did not have a NIF prior to your entry into Portugal on D7, I would assume you contract was not registered with financas?

May I also ask what made the duration of the lease be from October to May(normally lease are 3,6 or 12 months) -is it for the reason JohnnyPT mentioned? mind If I ask if you rented  the place thru a rental company?

and lastly, just out of curiosity, which consulate in Canada processed your visa and the time taken to hear from them?

To add to this comment, one of the reasons allowed as justification for a shorter lease is an indication that it is as a trial period before buying.

Indeed, the contract legislation and the D7 legislation are different and can be confusing. The D7 requiring proof of residence accepts proof of accommodation which as long as it has the structure of being "permanent" in nature (this could even be a local lodging accommodation which is legally not residential but deemed non-permanent)  is sufficient. I have heard of cases in US consulate where the consulate accepts multiple Airbnb bookings, one person even posted they had used a hotel booking! But the key thing is that you will have an entry interview in SEF in Portugal so try to get a contract that is convincingly residential in nature.

If you intend to move to Portugal permanently, even if seasonally, then the contracts should reflect that. Same thing would happen in other countries.

However, beware, owners are not very reluctant to do what we deemed "split-year" contracts (spring/autumn) because they run the risk of having to allow tenants to stay in the summer at the same price, so expect to have to pay a lot more, do Local Lodging (AL) contacts or separate contracts, each of inferior periods...the situation is quite a bit more complicated than it was even  year ago.

Thank you Algarvesseniorliving,
                                                        when you say,But the key thing is that you will have an entry interview in SEF in Portugal so try to get a contract that is convincingly residential in nature.

would they accept alojamento local? One could be booking and living there thru out the year as long can afford it.
I have heard of cases in US consulate where the consulate accepts multiple Airbnb bookings, one person even posted they had used a hotel booking!

May I ask where did you get this from? just curious.

the key thing is that you will have an entry interview in SEF in Portugal so try to get a contract that is convincingly residential in nature

Does this contract need to be registered with financas? I see a lot or rooms/quartos but obviously not registered. Will SEF in Portugal accept that?

Thank you

Hello,

Al is acceptable as long as the rental period is sufficient.
Saw the posts of several FB forums, typically of US citizens coming to Portugal.
Registering the contract is nothing to do with the tenant, nor with SEF, and is the responsibility of the landlord (it is a tax matter).

Having said all this, often we see differences in approach from SEF office to SEF answer as we do from consulate to consulate. We recommend using a local expert who knows the quirks of one or more specific SEF offices to avoid surprises.