# Advice on potentially awkward Crete landlady, please



## Scottyboy (Oct 28, 2017)

Hi all,

I wonder if you might help please.

My partner and I have been staying via Airbnb in Crete, and we are about to possibly start renting a property in a village in Crete. I say 'possibly', because we've hit a possible stumbling block.

The house is a very old building, and needs LOTS of work to it to make it liveable.

We've been dealing with the husband of the landlord, and he is a lovely man. His wife is the owner of the house in question. She is a lawyer, and it was highlighted to us by a friend who knows her, that she is not overly friendly.

Sure enough, when we met her for the first time the other day, she was pretty cold. We have struck a good deal on the cost of the rent, whereby it is reduced for a year to give us money to fix the place up.

My reason for posting is this. She told us that we would have to sign a *3 year contract*. She also said that this was the minimum term by law.

Everyone of our Cretan friends we have told about this have said that this is strange. No other place we've looked at has mentioned a 3 year contract at all. I am wary of signing a 3 year contract, because that seems like an awfully long time to commit. We may decide to move to a bigger house if we have kids. And also, the house is old and very dirty. We don't know if there will be rats, or if it will be colder than we expected, if the heating will be more expensive than we thought, or if there will be more worked needed to fix the house.

Here are my questions:

*1)* Is 3 years _actually_ the minimum term by law?

*2)* Do all landlords/agents do this? Surely not everyone wants to stay 3 years in a place?

*3)* Given that this lady is a lawyer, and not overly friendly, what, in your experience, could be a likely outcome if we wanted to leave the house earlier, say after 1 year? Could they ask us to pay the full amount of the contract term? Could they take legal action against us? I am the type of person who, upon signing a contract, honours that contract, and I'm certainly not looking to leave under a negative cloud.

Or could they simply understand, and let us leave earlier, cancelling the contract, do you think?

I realise this is subjective, and you don't know the landlady involved, but any input will help us to make a decision on what to do next.

Many thanks,

Scott


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## AkiraX (Aug 10, 2017)

1) Apparently yes.

2) Depends on the landlord. Law requires 3 years, even if less years are stated in the contract.
Usually, if the tenant wants to leave after 1 year (highly probable), he/she notifies the landlord a month or some months in advance and they mutually agree to end the contract (most cases).

If the landlord wants, he/she can demand the remaining rents of the contract. This is quite unusual though as it will require a lawsuit and the court procedures can take up to 2 years. However, yes, the landlord can sue you.

3) Judging by how you describer her, I wouldn't mess with her unless I was almost certain that I will live there for the next 3 years. Usually, no one takes legal action for that, especially if you have stayed for 1-2 years, but since she is a lawyer she might do that.


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## Claudine M. (Aug 30, 2016)

IMO run away as fast as your legs will take you as soon as possible. 
You don't stand a chance if anything goes wrong. Take it from a very experienced renter in 5 european countries, includes calabria, that so much can go wrong, workers are so difficult to hire and keep doing things properly. After all you are just renting, why put your energies and youth into fixing up a place for someone else. Your landlords will be laughing all he way to the bank!


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## Claudine M. (Aug 30, 2016)

Best Wishes, try for another rental!


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