Leasing Contract The leasing contracts most frequently used are the ones to rent houses, commercial places, garages and business leasing contracts. The legal advice is to create a leasing contract always in order to be protected as landlord and tenant. This is a contract the must include some minimal formalities: Identification of the property, identification of the landlord and tenants, total amount of the rent, duration of the contract, the use and the conditions of the property, guarantee deposit, inspections, notifications and prohibition or permission of Subletting, etc.

Administrative Eviction The general Landlord-Tenant Law specifically excludes the following: (a) hotels, hostels and B&B’s(b) residential homes for tourism purposes which are located in areas which the Costa Rican Tourism Institute has determined to be tourism areas and so long as the rental is seasonal in nature. (c) Caretaking or occupancy by mere tolerance of a built structure.(d) The use of a home, local or offices assigned to administrators, guards, peons, employees or officers related to their employment and service.(e) Contracts for a home located on farmland where the main purpose of the contract is the agricultural use of the land. In this cases apply the administrative evictions which is the legal procedure to expel personnel, managers, and possession in precarious or by mere tolerance. It also applies to for spaces for parking of vehicles, advertising spots, etc. Important: this process can be applied to the owner of a real property and who was expelled from it due to domestic violence. Our Lawyers may assist you to submit the request of Administrative Eviction which is done before the Costa Rican police forces (Ministry of Public Security). To submit the request it is required the identification of the owner, the location of the property, the origin of the occupation. Our lawyers will guide you during the whole eviction process.

Eviction process in Costa Rica With new regulations recently created, the eviction process has been changed with the objective to offer major protection to the landlord in case of not payment of the rent or no payment of utilities by the tenant. This new process allows the landlord to recover the possession of the property in less time.
The Law establishes that it is possible to initiate the eviction process with the new law in case of the following situations:
- No payment of the rent
- No payment of utility bills or the expenses of a condominium.

This process is possible only if the leasing contract states that those amounts were supposed to be covered by the tenant.