ICAB opens the 2nd edition of its online course on the urban lease contract in 2026

The Civil Law Section of the Barcelona Bar Association (ICAB) has convened the second edition of its online course on the Urban Lease Contract in 2026, running from 2 November to 23 December. The programme walks through the full life of the rental contract with a practical approach and special attention to the recent housing law reforms.

Programme: twelve sessions, from the listing to termination

The course is structured in twelve sessions taught by lawyers of the Civil Law Section, university professors and specialists in real estate practice. The planned route:

• Opening (2 November): who counts as a large-scale landlord in Catalonia, the social-rent offer obligation and tenants in situations of vulnerability, with Miquel Serra Camus, president of the Section, and Silvia Jiménez Xarrié, vice-president.
• Pre-contractual phase: legal listings, reservations and the requirements for putting a flat on the market.
• Life of the contract: minimum terms, mandatory performance and termination, the impact of recent legislation on legal extensions and an analysis of tacit renewal.
• Plurality and subjective novations: legal persons as tenants, subrogation on death, marital crises and reclaiming the flat for family need.
• Works: improvement versus conservation, community works and cases of tenant disability.
• Suspension, resolution and termination: vicissitudes of the contract, MASC and the practical handling of the end-of-term oral trial.
• Drafting workshop: how to draft a residential lease, the legal deposit, additional guarantees and registry inscription.
• Rent: determination under article 17 of the Urban Leases Act, stressed market areas and the effects of the most recent rules on rent updates.
• Subletting, seasonal and room rentals: legal news and the requirements for structuring them correctly.
• Old-rent leases: the 1964 Urban Leases Act and the Boyer Decree today, subrogation and specific grounds for termination.
• Closing (9 December): alternatives to the judicial route and submission clauses, with Marta Legarreta Fontelles, professor at UPF and UIC.

Why it matters now

Few areas of Spanish law have changed as much in as little time as urban leases: the declaration of stressed areas, limits on rent updates, extraordinary extensions and a constant flow of state and regional rules that force contracts and strategies to be redrawn. In this publication we have followed it piece by piece, from the declaration of 53 stressed municipalities in Catalonia to the rental extension under Royal Decree-Law 28/2026.

A course that dedicates specific sessions to the large-scale landlord, to rent in stressed areas and to old-rent leases answers exactly the doubts reaching law firm consultations and legal guidance services. The online format, moreover, makes it accessible to members of any bar district.

Practical details

• Dates: 2 November to 23 December 2026, with sessions on Mondays and Wednesdays.
• Format: online.
• Organizer: ICAB Civil Law Section.
• Registration: through the course page on the ICAB website.

The teaching staff —practising lawyers who handle these disputes daily, alongside university professors— guarantees that the content responds to the real casuistry of the courts and not only to the text of the statute. For firms with a real estate practice, it is a chance to update the whole team at a manageable time cost; for solo practitioners handling housing consultations, a structured way to catch up in an especially dense quarter for new rules.

More training this season

The autumn training offer remains open at other bars and institutions: remember that the ICAV Legal Aid course closes enrolment on 30 October and that ICAB keeps open the calls for its 2026-2027 master's programmes, including Real Estate Law. Anyone organizing a course for lawyers can submit it to the newsroom following the guide on how to publish a course on Agente Lex.