The contract's title does not decide it
It has become fashionable to head contracts «seasonal lease» (arrendamiento de temporada) to get around the extensions of a residential lease. It works less well than it seems.
The law distinguishes a residential lease —one meant to meet the tenant's permanent housing need— from leases for other uses, which include seasonal ones. And what decides which one applies is not the heading: it is the real purpose, and it has to be explainable.
A seasonal contract without a temporary reason —a work transfer, a course, building works in your own home— is, for a judge, a residential lease under another name. And then the tenant has all the extensions.
What changes from one to the other
What each party has at stake
The landlord who signs a badly set-up seasonal lease thinks they will get the home back in eleven months, and may find a tenant entitled to stay for five years. Worse still: they find out when they have already sold or made plans.
The tenant who signs a seasonal lease without realising loses the extensions and the rent protection, and often signs believing they have the other kind.
Both cases are solved the same way: telling the truth in the contract and drafting it for what is really going to happen. A contract that describes reality well holds up; one that disguises it falls apart the day it is needed.
Further reading: what to check in your rental contract in Madrid and how much deposit they can ask for.
Questions about seasonal rentals
Is eleven months seasonal?
Not in itself. Eleven months is a custom, not a legal category. What decides is the real use of the home.
What about holiday rentals?
That is something else: it falls outside the leases act and is governed by each region's tourism rules, with licences and registration. Confusing it with a seasonal lease is a common and costly problem.
Can I switch from seasonal to residential?
A new contract can be signed when it ends, on the appropriate terms. What does not work is chaining seasonal leases to avoid the extensions: that is visible from the outside.
Can you draft the contract for us?
Yes, and the first thing we do is ask what it is really for. The type of contract follows from that, not the other way round.