An Expat's Guide to Rental Contacts in Costa Rica

If you are moving abroad to Costa Rica to live there is a pretty good chance that you will be renting an apartment or home to live in as opposed to buying a property or staying in hotels for the duration of your stay in the country. If this will be your first time renting in a foreign country you may be concerned about your rights as a renter and what will be expected of you when you sign your rental contract to lease a place to stay. You should rest easy knowing that Costa Rica has a well regulated rental market and as a renter you will be well protected. This applies for both short term vacation rentals a normal long term accommodation rentals.

The first thing that you will notice as somewhat strange about rental contracts in Costa Rica is the duration of the contract. Depending on where you will be moving from you may discover that the rental contracts in Costa Rica are considerably longer in duration. For instance, most rental contracts in the United States are for a period of one year only. In Costa Rica the typical rental contract is for a whopping three years! If your rent is charged in US dollars then the landlord cannot raise your rent during the rental contract period. However, if your rent is not charged in US dollars then your rent can be increased up to 15 percent.

It is not uncommon to find a rental where the landlord also offers six month rentals. There are a long of expats that are on short term visas or who only need to rent while searching for property to buy and thus need a short term rental.

The standard notice period for terminating a rental and leaving the property is three months notice. This may also be a longer period than you are used to in your home country. If you end the lease early you will lose the security deposit. Note that landlords can request any amount of a security deposit that they want as there is no legal cap on the amount.

If your landlord wants to terminate your lease you are supposed to be given a three month notice. However if the landlord lives in the same building it is acceptable for you to only be give a 30 day notice.

If you do not end your rental contract within the minimum time period when your lease is due to be up it will automatically renew. So, if you are supposed to give three months notice but only give three weeks your contact will renew.

Beware of paying your rent late. If your rent payment is seven days late your landlord can take you to court and ask for you to be evicted. If you do not pay other agreed upon bills you can be evicted and the landlord will deduct the unpaid amounts from your security deposit.

Landlords are legally allowed to inspect the rental once a month. If they see that you are doing something illegal they can evict you. Note that subletting is illegal in Costa Rica.

When you are ready to sign a rental contract it is a good idea to know what average rental costs are to make sure you are not getting scammed. The average price of rentals is $100 to $200 per month. Small apartments in more luxurious surroundings are around $250 per month. And if you want to rent a luxury house it will be around $900 per month.