Portugal Rental Contract and Tenant Rights for Americans and Britons

A Portuguese lease is governed after signing by the Civil Code and the urban lease law, the NRAU (Law 6/2006). Together they decide who repairs the apartment, when the rent can change, who may live there, how the lease can end and how an eviction works, and the pages we read set no condition of nationality for any of it, so it is the same for Americans and Britons.

This guide starts where the guide to renting an apartment in Portugal stops. That one covers the written form, the content of the lease, advance rent and the guarantee, duration and renewal, and tax registration. This one covers life under the lease. It is based on the official pages we read on 18 October 2026 and is not legal advice. The latest information it rests on is dated 30 September 2026, the day the Portuguese Parliament approved in principle a government bill on rental law, explained in the last section.

How do letters between tenant and landlord work?

If you need the lease as a document for a visa file, see proof of accommodation for the visa application.

Start here, because every other right depends on it. Article 9 of the NRAU says that communications about ending the lease, updating the rent and works must be a signed written document sent by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, unless the law says otherwise. It can also be handed over by hand, with the receiver signing a copy and noting the receipt.

Two rules matter to someone who travels or moves. Letters to the tenant go to the rented property unless the tenant has said otherwise in writing, and each party must tell the other if the address changes. A letter counts as delivered even if the tenant refused it or someone else signed the receipt, except for letters that start an eviction or claim unpaid rent, and a letter returned unclaimed must be sent again after 30 to 60 days (article 10). If the rented home is a couple’s family home, some notices must go to each spouse (article 12).

Who pays for repairs and works?

Decree-Law 157/2006, the regime for works in rented buildings, says what a tenant who repairs in the landlord’s place may recover. Where the landlord is late with a repair or the town hall ordered the works (article 22-A(1)), the tenant tells the landlord in advance, at least 15 days before starting, with a budget and a bill of quantities (article 22-C(1)). For a repair that cannot wait at all (article 1036(2) of the Civil Code), only the report of completion within 30 days with receipts and the compensation rules apply. The compensation is the cost of the works plus interest, plus 5% for administration, and the tenant can deduct what was spent from the coming rents or take one of two payment options (articles 22-A to 22-D). Keep every invoice and send the letters in the form of article 9.

What can a tenant do about a serious defect, noise or a cut-off service?

Article 13-B of the NRAU lets a tenant formally call on the landlord to stop noise outside legal limits, to correct defects in the home or common parts that are a serious risk to health or safety, or to correct situations that stop the use of the home or of water, electricity, gas or sewer connections. The call goes by article 9 letter and states the facts. The tenant can also ask the town hall for an inspection, which the article calls urgent and to be done within 20 days.

The landlord has 30 days to show the fix or give reasons. If there is no answer or the problem continues without justification, the tenant can apply for an injunction and demand a penalty of 20 euros per day, raised by 50% for a tenant aged 65 or more or with a proven disability of 60% or more. If the injunction is granted for these cases, the daily penalty becomes 50 euros, and the tenant can deduct it from the rent that follows (article 15-T). The same article lists the injunction for unpaid compensation after a tenant’s urgent works. The Civil Code adds that a tenant can end the lease if a defect endangers life or health (article 1050) and that the rent is reduced in proportion to a loss of use (article 1040).

When can the rent go up?

The lease can set its own update rule, in writing. If it is silent, article 1077 of the Civil Code says the rent can be updated once a year by the legal coefficient, the first time one year after the lease starts. The landlord must announce the coefficient and the new rent in writing at least 30 days ahead. A landlord who does not update can still apply the missed coefficients later, but not if more than three years have passed since the date they could first have been applied.

Article 24 of the NRAU defines the coefficient as the change in the consumer price index without housing over the last 12 months available on 31 August, calculated by the national statistics institute (INE), and says the notice with the coefficient is published in the Diário da República by 30 October each year. We did not look for a specific year’s figure, so check the notice for the year concerned.

A separate rule applies to a new lease on a home that was let in the five years before Law 56/2023 came into force. Article 34 of that law says the initial rent of such a new lease cannot exceed the last rent charged for the same property, multiplied by 1.02, with additions allowed for missed updates and for deep renovation works, and it applies to contracts that exceed the general rent limits by type in Portaria 176/2019. The bill described below would repeal it. The consolidated text on the Diário da República lists that law as in force, last amended on 23 October 2024.

Can I sublet, add a roommate or have guests?

Without the landlord’s authorization, a tenant cannot let anyone else use the home through assignment, subletting or free loan, unless the law allows it (article 1038). Authorization to sublet must be in writing, and an unauthorized sublease counts as accepted if the landlord recognizes the subtenant as such (article 1088). When a sublease is permitted, the tenant must tell the landlord within 15 days. The subtenant’s rent cannot exceed the tenant’s rent by more than 20% unless the landlord agreed otherwise (article 1062). An unlawful assignment of the home is one of the grounds on which the landlord can end the lease (article 1083).

The rule on who lives in the home is more generous. In a housing lease, besides the tenant, anyone living with the tenant in a shared household can live there, plus at most three paying guests unless the lease says otherwise (article 1093). A partner in a de facto union and relatives up to the third degree always count as household, even if they pay something.

When can a landlord end the lease?

The pillar guide lists the notice periods for letting a fixed-term lease expire and the landlord’s grounds for an open-ended one. Here is what the rules add once the lease is running.

Two protections come with the own-use ground. The landlord who ends the lease must use the home as stated within three months, for at least two years. If not, or if the works do not start within six months of the tenant leaving, the landlord owes 10 years of rent, unless the reason is not the landlord’s. And a landlord’s termination cannot leave the total duration of the lease below two years (article 1103).

Harassment is separately banned. Article 13-A of the NRAU defines it as illegitimate conduct to force the tenant out, by the landlord, their representative or an interested third party, that disturbs the tenant or creates an intimidating or hostile environment, or seriously impedes access to the home.

What if the landlord sells, or the tenant dies?

If you are weighing a purchase instead of a lease, see our guide to buying a property in Portugal as a foreigner.

If the landlord sells, the new owner takes over the landlord’s rights and duties, subject to the land registry rules (article 1057). A tenant who has rented the home for more than two years has a right of first refusal when it is sold or given in payment of a debt (article 1091). The notice goes by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, and the tenant has 30 days from receipt to answer. If the home is sold together with other properties, the seller must state the price assigned to the rented unit.

A housing lease does not lapse on the tenant’s death if a surviving spouse living in the home, a partner of more than a year or a person in a shared household for more than a year remains (article 1106). The right does not apply if that person already has another home, owned or rented, in the same municipality, or in Lisbon or Porto and their neighboring municipalities. The survivor must tell the landlord within three months, with copies of the proving documents, or pay damages for any loss caused by the omission (article 1107). In a divorce, the spouses can agree on who keeps the family home lease, and a court decides otherwise (article 1105).

For a foreigner these articles matter when a partner lives with you without a marriage certificate: the Civil Code names the partner in a de facto union explicitly. How a foreign marriage or partnership is proved is not covered by the pages we read.

How do I get the deposit back and hand the home over?

What can be asked upfront, and what the other rental costs are, is in our guide to deposits, agency fees and the other rental costs.

The Civil Code articles we read say that, unless the lease says otherwise, the tenant must maintain and return the property in the state received, except for deterioration inherent in prudent use. If there is no signed document describing the condition at delivery, the home is presumed to have been delivered in good maintenance condition (article 1043). The tenant answers for loss or damage unless it is not attributable to the tenant or a person they allowed to use the home (article 1044). Ending the lease makes the handover and the repairs for which the tenant is responsible immediately due, unless a different time was agreed (article 1081).

If the tenant does not return the home when the lease ends, the tenant owes the rent until the return, and the compensation doubles once the tenant is in default (article 1045). During the last three months before leaving, the tenant must let prospective tenants view the home at times agreed with the landlord, and without agreement from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm on working days and from 3 pm to 7 pm on weekends (article 1081).

Our pages set no deadline for refunding the guarantee and no list of what can be deducted. We did not find an official page that does, so read the clause in your lease and keep the signed condition report and dated photographs.

How does an eviction work, and what is the BAS?

When a lease has ended and the tenant stays, the landlord has two routes. NRAU article 14 provides the ordinary court action. If rent, charges or expenses of two months or more are not paid or deposited while the action runs, the tenant is told to pay or deposit within 10 days, or the landlord can ask for immediate eviction.

The second route is the special eviction procedure through the Balcão do Arrendatário e do Senhorio (BAS), created by article 15-A of the NRAU within the Direção-Geral da Administração da Justiça, with national competence. The pages we read describe these steps:

1. The landlord files the request with the BAS on the official form, with the contract and proof of the ground, for example the letter ending the lease. The procedure is open only to leases whose stamp duty was paid or whose rents were declared for personal or corporate income tax (article 15).
2. The BAS sends the tenant a notice by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, to the address in the request, which is the rented property unless a different address was agreed in writing. The tenant has 15 days to leave and pay, or to oppose (articles 15-B and 15-D).
3. Opposition is filed electronically at the BAS with proof of payment of the court fee. In arrears cases under article 1083 (3) or (4) of the Civil Code, the tenant must also pay a guarantee equal to the unpaid amounts, up to six rents, unless legal aid applies. Without these payments the opposition counts as not filed (article 15-F). A lawyer is compulsory to file the opposition (article 15-S).
4. If there is no valid opposition, the BAS turns the request into a title for vacating the home, and the file goes to a judge, who rules on the order to enter the home (articles 15-E and 15-EA).
5. The enforcement officer or notary takes possession. When the home is the tenant’s residence, the operation can take place only between 7 am and 9 pm, and the person in charge of the place may attend. The tenant is notified to remove their belongings within 15 days after possession is taken, or they are deemed abandoned (articles 15-J and 15-K).

The notice must tell the tenant about the public services to contact if there is no alternative housing (article 14-B). Under article 15-LA, if the landlord used the procedure for arrears on a housing lease, claimed the unpaid rents in it, and the tenant has not ended the default and stays after the opposition period, the State assumes payment of the following rents, up to a monthly maximum of 1.5 times the minimum monthly wage and with a total cap of nine times the minimum monthly wage, and takes over the landlord’s claim against the tenant. An appeal against the court decision always has no suspending effect (article 15-Q). Someone who knowingly files an unfounded opposition, or a landlord who misuses the procedure, answers for damages and a fine, and defying the court order to vacate is the crime of qualified disobedience (article 15-R).

In practice, the best protection is to answer any letter within the deadline and keep your postal address current with the landlord, since notices go to the rented property by default. The Portal da Habitação page on the NRAU is where the housing institute (IHRU) presents the regime, but its FAQ page is marked as being updated, so we relied on the legal texts.

What is changing in 2026?

On 18 October 2026, the consolidated NRAU on the Diário da República lists its last change as Law 56/2023 of 6 October 2023, and the Civil Code’s lease articles show Law 82/2023 of 29 December 2023 as their last amendment. The Diário da República front page showed the edition of 16 October 2026 as the latest, and we found no new rental law in the pages we opened.

What exists is a bill, Proposta de Lei 103/XVII/1. The Parliament record says the Government submitted it on 12 August 2026 and that it was approved in general terms on 30 September 2026, with PSD, IL and CDS-PP for, Chega abstaining and PS, Livre, PCP, BE, PAN and JPP against, and then went to the Infrastructure, Mobility and Housing Committee for detailed examination. It is not law. It asks Parliament to authorize the Government, for 180 days, to amend the NRAU, the Civil Code and related laws by a later decree-law, which would still have to be published in the Diário da República.

We read the bill as submitted. The following are what its text says the Government would be authorized to do, not what the law is, and the committee can still change them:

The bill also proposes that notices between landlord and tenant could go by email when an electronic address was agreed. The bill annexes a draft decree-law, which is the Government’s text for the future law. Until a law is published, the rules in the sections above are the ones the pages show.

Decree-Law 97/2026 of 20 May 2026 is in force according to the Diário da República, and its summary describes tax measures to encourage housing supply, including the rent deduction in personal income tax and a simplified affordable rental regime. It is not a change to the tenant rules in this guide. A rectification declaration (Declaração de Retificação n.º 26/2026/1) is listed against it and we did not read it.

More guides on this site: setting up electricity, water and gas.

What to do, in order

1. Keep the lease, the signed condition report and all payment receipts together, with dates.
2. Give the landlord a postal address you will keep for the whole lease, and tell the landlord in writing if it changes.
3. Put any repair request, rent dispute or notice in a signed letter sent as article 9 requires, and keep the registered-letter receipt.
4. Ask for written authorization before subletting, doing works or taking in anyone beyond your household.
5. Open every letter from the landlord or the BAS the day it arrives and note the deadline: 15 days is short.
6. For a first move, our first month paperwork guide places the lease among the other documents you need, and the guide to the Portuguese NIF explains the tax number the lease records. Britons also find the withdrawal agreement context in our guide for British citizens, and our first year settling-in guide shows where renting fits in the rest of the year.

Official pages read for this guide, all on 18 October 2026: the consolidated Civil Code and the consolidated NRAU (Law 6/2006), Law 56/2023 and Decree-Law 157/2006 on the Diário da República, the Civil Code and the NRAU on the Procuradoria-Geral Distrital de Lisboa site, the Portal da Habitação NRAU page, Decree-Law 97/2026 on the Diário da República, and the Parliament record and bill text of Proposta de Lei 103/XVII/1. Not read: the Balcão do Arrendatário e do Senhorio’s own web pages and court fee tables, the annual rent coefficient notices, the text of Declaração de Retificação n.º 26/2026/1, and any court case law.