Deposit disputes, Spain
Get your deposit back.
In English.
We draft a legally recognised demand (a burofax) in correct Spanish, send it formally to your landlord on your behalf, and tell you exactly what happens next.
No payment until your case is reviewed
Deposit timeline
From move-out day30 days.
Then the clock is on them.
Day 0
You move out
Keys handed back. The legal countdown starts here.
Day 1 to 30
Landlord's window
By law they have 30 days to return your fianza in full.
Day 31
They are late
Silence or excuses now count against them, plus interest.
Day 32
Burofax goes out
We draft it and send it certified via Correos. Legal proof.
Day 42
Most pay up
A certified demand usually ends it. If not, you have your evidence.
01Sound familiar
You are not being difficult. You are being ignored.
- 01
You message them. Nothing. You message again. Still nothing.
- 02
Suddenly there is damage you have never heard about, with no photos and no receipts.
- 03
“I'll transfer it next week.” That was two months ago.
- 04
Your Spanish is fine for a bar, not for arguing about the Ley de Arrendamientos Urbanos.
- 05
A lawyer quoted you more than the deposit is worth.
- 06
So you start wondering whether to just let it go.
54%
of people we asked in Spain said their landlord had unfairly kept their deposit.
Poll of 212 people living in Spain.
Don't. In Spain your landlord has one month from the day you return the keys. After that, the law is on your side. It just needs to be said properly, in the right language, through the right channel.
02How it works
Three steps. We do the hard part.
Tell us what happened
A few minutes, all in English. Plain questions about your deposit, your tenancy and your landlord. No forms in Spanish, no legal vocabulary.
We prepare and send the demand
We write your demand in correct legal Spanish, have it reviewed by a Spanish abogado, and send it as a burofax through Correos, the format Spanish courts recognise.
You get certified proof
You receive official proof of what was sent and that it was delivered, plus a clear plan in plain English for what to do if they still do not pay.
03Wait, what is a burofax
The letter Spain actually takes seriously.
Correos, certificado
“Acuse de recibo y certificación de contenido”
proof of what was sent + proof it arrived
A burofax is a certified way of sending a document in Spain. Correos records both what you sent and that it was delivered, then gives you documents proving it.
That is what makes it different from an email or a WhatsApp. It carries real weight: a Spanish judge will accept it as evidence that you formally demanded your money and set a deadline. It is the standard, expected first move in a deposit dispute, and often the moment a landlord suddenly finds your bank details.
To count, it has to be written in Spanish, say the right things, and go through the right channel. That is exactly the part we handle.
04Left it a while
That deposit from 2022 is still legally yours.
Most people who lose a deposit in Spain quietly write it off within a few months. They assume the moment has passed. It has not. You did not lose your deposit, you just stopped chasing it.
No payment until your case is reviewed
Five years, not one month
The month is your landlord's deadline to pay you back. Your deadline to claim is far longer. A deposit claim is an ordinary personal action under article 1964 of the Código Civil, which prescribes after five years, counted from when that return deadline passed.
The burofax stops the clock
A burofax is a formal extrajudicial claim under article 1973 CC, so sending one interrupts the limitation period and the five years start again. Acting now does not just chase the money, it protects the claim.
We check your dates first
The exact cut-off depends on when your tenancy ended, so we never guess. Tell us your dates in the intake and we will tell you honestly whether you are still in time, before you pay anything.
04Why I built this
I'm Tom.
Madrid, since 2016.
What this is
The deposit process, worked out properly and turned into a service.
Drafted in correct legal Spanish, reviewed by an abogado, sent through Correos so it counts.
I moved to Madrid in 2016 and, like most people here, I learned how Spain actually works the hard way.
I also run Guiris de Mierda, a community for foreigners living in Spain. Over the past four years we have put on hundreds of events and grown to thousands of members, from Madrid to Barcelona to Valencia. Which means I have spent four years in rooms full of people telling me the same story.
If you are here because a landlord is sitting on your deposit, I know exactly how that feels. The silence. The excuses. The “I'll transfer it next week” that never comes. And underneath it all, the assumption that you are a guiri who will not do anything about it.
I went deep into how the system actually works: the burofax, the certified demand Spanish courts genuinely take seriously, how to draft it properly in Spanish, how to send it through Correos so it counts, and what happens at each step after that. It is a maze. Spanish bureaucracy is slow, in a language you probably do not fully speak, and built in a way that quietly assumes you will give up.
Most people do give up. Not because they are wrong, but because chasing it means losing a weekend to paperwork you cannot read, and a lawyer costs more than the deposit is worth.
So I launched Deposit Recovery Spain for the community I already spend my life with. I have turned everything I have learned into one simple service, so you do not have to figure out the maze alone. Same fight, just with someone in your corner who has already done the hard part.
4 yrs
Building Guiris de Mierda
100s
Community events hosted
1,000s
Members across Spain
05Pricing
One price. No hourly billing. No surprises.
- An honest assessment of your situation
- Your demand professionally prepared in correct legal Spanish
- Review by a Spanish abogado before anything is sent
- Certified sending via Correos burofax
- Official proof of contents and delivery, sent back to you
- A clear next steps roadmap if they still do not pay
Honest promise: if a burofax is not the right move for you, we tell you before you pay a cent.
06Questions
The things people ask us first.
Your move
You have more power here than you think. Let's use it.
Answer a few questions in English. We take it from there.
€129 flat. No payment until your case is reviewed.