Costa Rica Tenant Rights: Your Lease Under Ley 7527

Guides · Costa Rica

The lease an agent hands you is probably a three-year lease, and in a deflation year your landlord may have no legal room to raise the rent at all.

Costa Rica tenant rights are stronger than the paperwork suggests, which is exactly why so few tenants use them. The statute fixes a minimum term, caps increases, sets notice periods and lists the only grounds on which you can be evicted. It also leaves real holes, and the honest answer to where you complain is not a regulator. This guide walks through the law article by article, using the figures published up to September 2026.

Costa Rica tenant rights start with a three-year term

Article 70 is the rule that surprises everyone. The minimum lease term is three years. A lease stipulating less, or stating no term at all, is deemed to be for three years, counted from the day you receive the property. The one-year lease an agent presents is, as a matter of law, a three-year lease on your side. Article 3 makes these rights non-waivable, so a clause shortening the term is read as unwritten.

Two cheap protections are worth using. Article 17 exempts residential leases of any value from duties, fiscal stamps and timbres. Article 18 lets any person ask a civil court in the property’s district to stamp a certain date on the contract, verbally, with no formality and free of charge. Article 11 requires a written contract to describe the property, its installations, its state of conservation and any defects, plus an itemised list of furniture. Article 46 presumes you received the property in good condition if nothing says otherwise.

The annual increase, and why 2026 is different

Article 67 was rewritten by Ley 9354 of 4 April 2016, published in La Gaceta on 3 June 2016. The rent updates at the end of each contract year. Where accumulated inflation over the twelve months before that anniversary is 10% or less, the landlord may raise the rent by an equal or smaller percentage. The benchmark is the consumer price index of the statistics institute. Above 10%, the housing ministry sets the additional figure. An increase above the cap is void of full right.

Procedure matters as much as the number. The increase takes effect from the payment period following the one in which the landlord notifies you. The notice must carry a certification from the statistics institute, or an authentic copy of the official gazette publication. A verbal increase or a bare email does not comply. If you disagree you may deposit the previous rent judicially, though the effect of that payment depends on the outcome of any eviction. The ministry must publish the maximum applicable figure on the first day of each month.

The 2026 figures, and an error in circulation

Costa Rica is in deflation. The housing ministry published a July 2026 adjustment figure of below zero, a fall of 0.28%. The statistics institute recorded prices falling 0.11% in August 2026, and 0.17% over the year to August. Prices have fallen since May 2025, and September 2026 marked forty consecutive months below the central bank target. Article 67 permits an increase equal to or below accumulated inflation, and that rate is negative, so landlords on colón leases have essentially no legal room this year.

One widely read expat site states a 2026 cap of a 2.73% reduction. That figure does not match either official source, and the framing is wrong in principle. The cap is a monthly published figure tied to your own contract anniversary, not a single annual number. Check the ministry figure for your anniversary month, and ask for the certification. Colón amounts here convert at ¢450 (about US$1), the rate on 23 September 2026.

Dollar leases cannot be raised at all

The final paragraph of article 67 is the single most valuable line in the statute for a foreign tenant. Where the price of a residential lease is in foreign currency, the agreed sum is kept for the whole term of the contract, with no right of adjustment. Combine that with the three-year minimum in article 70 and a US$1,500 dollar lease is a US$1,500 lease for three years. Article 57 still lets you pay in colones at the central bank sell rate on the payment date.

Non-residential premises are different. Under article 69 the parties may freely agree the periods, form and amounts of any adjustment. Failing agreement, either side may bring a summary proceeding at the end of each contract year to have the increase fixed, or submit it to arbitrators or experts. So the freeze protects your home, not your shop or office.

Notice, renewal and ending the lease

Renewal is automatic unless the landlord acts. Article 71 gives tacit renewal unless the landlord gives notice of not renewing at least three months before the term ends. The renewal runs a fresh three-year period, with all terms continuing. Article 72 lets you end the lease on three months’ notice, unless you agreed otherwise in writing. Article 75 keeps the lease alive if the property is sold.

There are exceptions. Article 74 lets the owner of a building with no more than two let units, who lives there, end the lease on one month’s notice regardless of the term. Article 76 caps the lease at three years where a mortgage or attachment was registered earlier. Articles 78 and 79 prohibit subletting without express authorisation, and breach is a ground for termination. Article 120 gives you one year to bring a claim.

Eviction, and where you actually complain

Article 114 lists the landlord’s grounds. They are non-payment of rent, failing to keep the property in good condition, breaching condominium rules, not paying condominium expenses, changing the use of the property and refusing inspection. Abusive enjoyment counts too, which article 54 defines as notoriously bothersome, noisy, scandalous, dangerous, unhealthy or unlawful activity. Article 115 gives you grounds against the landlord, including a property not delivered in a safe and healthy state.

Article 116 requires a formal prior demand, allowing up to thirty days, for the condominium grounds and for all of your grounds. Now the awkward part. The housing ministry states plainly that it has no power to advise on lease terms, and points people to a lawyer or to free legal advice services. Its only statutory role is publishing the monthly figure. Your venues are the civil court for the property’s district, judicial deposit of rent under article 66, and mediation or arbitration. Health and municipal authorities can act where a property is unsafe. Two things nobody publishes: how long an eviction takes, and when a deposit must come back, on which the statute is silent.

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