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Court confirms eviction over unwritten rental deal
Signing a rental contract in writing can head off a great many problems – as one tenant in Tenerife has just discovered. The Provincial Court of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has confirmed the eviction of a man who had verbally rented a room for €200 a month in a property in Arona. The dispute began when the building changed hands and doubts arose over whether that word-of-mouth arrangement still stood.
The man maintained that he had reached an agreement with the previous owner in May 2023, but the judges found that he had not provided sufficient evidence to prove the contract existed.
Judgment upheld on appeal
Judgment 472/2026 was handed down on 28 July 2026 by Section Three of the Provincial Court. The judges dismissed the appeal lodged by the occupant and upheld the ruling of Arona’s Court of First Instance number 3, which had found in favour of the owners in September 2025.
According to the occupant’s account, the agreement had been reached on 2 May 2023 and allowed him to use a bedroom as well as sharing the kitchen and bathroom. The supposed contract was to run initially for one year, with the possibility of extending it for a further five, and payment was to be made in cash.
No documents to back up the claim
However, the Provincial Court confirmed that the tenant produced no documents, receipts or other evidence to demonstrate that the rental relationship existed. Despite this, the court did not hold that a verbal contract is invalid for not being in writing – rather, it concluded that the man had failed to prove that the agreement he alleged had ever actually existed.
The property was subsequently bought by a couple in February 2024, when it was already occupied. The deed of sale recorded that circumstance. The buyers later registered the property in their names at the Land Registry and went to the courts to recover it with vacant possession, which is how the case came to trial.
Ownership and unidentified occupants
In his appeal, the man questioned whether the current owners had sufficiently proven their ownership. It was also argued that three other people were living in the property and that they had not been individually identified during the proceedings.
The judges rejected these arguments, finding that the deed of sale and the Land Registry extract proved that the claimants were the owners of the property. The judges also recalled that an eviction claim may be brought against unknown occupants when their identity is not initially known, provided that procedural safeguards are respected. The fact that the buyers knew the house was occupied when they acquired it does not prevent them from seeking its recovery either, according to the ruling.
Vulnerability argument rejected for lack of evidence
In the claim, the evicted tenant also stated that the property was his usual home and that he lacked the financial means to find an alternative. His defence criticised the court for not having properly examined his possible vulnerability.
The Provincial Court noted that insufficient evidence had been provided to prove those circumstances. However, the text does state that if information can be gathered to prove this situation, the relevant legal process could be followed. The ruling therefore does not establish that vulnerability is irrelevant in evictions, but rather rejects these specific claims by the occupant for lack of evidence.
Eviction confirmed but not yet carried out
The eviction is now confirmed, although there is no record at present that it has already been enforced. The Provincial Court maintains the order to vacate the property, which must be left free and at its owners’ disposal. If the occupant does not leave voluntarily in line with the legal process, a court-ordered eviction may proceed.
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