The lease in Spanish. The questions in English.
Both say the same thing.
Answer plain-English questions and get a complete Contrato de Arrendamiento — partes, plazo, renta, depósito, acceso, incumplimiento and firmas — with an optional clause naming which language controls.
- Written in Spanish, not translated
- Optional cláusula de idioma
- ESIGN & UETA valid
How it works
From English answers to a signed Spanish lease — in about two minutes
- 01
Name the parties and the property
Who is letting, who is renting, and the address. They appear in the document as Arrendador and Arrendatario — the questions stay in English so you know exactly what you are agreeing to.
- 02
Set the term, the rent and the deposit
Plazo fijo or mes a mes, the monthly renta and the day it is due, the depósito de garantía, which servicios are included, and your pets and smoking policy.
- 03
E-sign & download
Send it to your tenant for signature — legally valid under ESIGN/UETA — and download the finished contrato as a PDF. Leave the idioma clause on if you are also signing an English lease.
Last updated August 20, 2026
Written by LawLease EditorialReviewed by LawLease Legal Team
By living arrangement
Which lease you need
Language is not what decides this. A landlord renting a whole home, a homeowner renting one room and a tenant handing their place to someone else need three different documents, whichever language they are read in — so start from the arrangement, then pick the version your tenant can actually read.
- RL
Residential lease agreement
The same document in English, built on your state's law — deposit caps, notice periods and disclosures included.
Learn more - RR
Room rental agreement
You live in the home and rent one room to a longer-term occupant.
Learn more - SA
Sublease agreement
You hold the lease and are handing the place to someone else for a while.
Learn more - RA
Roommate agreement
Co-tenants on one lease, dividing rent and chores between themselves.
Learn more - ST
Short-term rental agreement
A vacation or transient stay booked by the night or the week — a licence to occupy, not a tenancy.
Learn more - LA
Lease amendment
Change a lease that is already signed — the rent, the term, a name on it.
Learn more
What is a Contrato de Arrendamiento?
A Contrato de Arrendamiento is a residential lease written in Spanish. It covers the same ground the English lease covers — the parties and the property, a fixed term or a month-to-month arrangement, the monthly rent and the day it falls due, the security deposit, which utilities are included, pets and smoking, repairs, the landlord's right of entry, what happens on default, and how the property is handed back — and it is signed by an Arrendador and an Arrendatario rather than a landlord and a tenant.
What makes it worth having is not the vocabulary. It is that the person signing can read what they are signing. A tenant who agreed to terms they took on trust is the tenant who disputes them later, and a lease run through a translation app on the day of signing is worse than either version alone — it introduces wording neither party actually chose. This document is drafted in Spanish from the start, while the wizard stays in English so the landlord never has to take the same leap of faith in the other direction. It is also called:
- Spanish lease agreement
- Contrato de arrendamiento de vivienda
- Contrato de renta
- Spanish rental agreement
- Lease in Spanish
- Bilingual lease
Need your state's deposit cap, notice periods and mandatory disclosures written into the lease itself? Build the state-specific residential lease and sign this contrato alongside it — the idioma clause exists for exactly that pairing.
Legal considerations
Start with the question most people arrive with: a lease written in Spanish is as enforceable as one written in English. Language is not what makes a contract binding — agreement is. What courts care about is whether both parties assented to the same terms, which is an argument a landlord is in a far better position to win when the tenant could read the document in front of them. The instinct that the English version is the “real” one has no legal basis behind it.
Two limits are worth knowing before you use this document. It is a general-purpose lease: it defers to the law of the state where the property sits rather than restating deposit deadlines, notice periods or required disclosures, so it carries no state tailoring and no 50-state claim. And in a handful of states the translation is not optional — California's Civil Code § 1632 is the clearest example, requiring a landlord who negotiates a lease of more than one month primarily in Spanish to hand the tenant a Spanish translation before it is signed, with rescission as the remedy for skipping it. That is a reason to use this document rather than a caveat about it.
Fully valid
a lease in Spanish binds exactly as an English one does
§ 1632
California requires the Spanish translation, it does not merely permit it
General form
this contrato defers to your state's law rather than restating it
- The language of a lease does not decide its validity
- A contract is enforceable because the parties agreed to it, not because of the language it was written in. A Spanish lease signed by both sides is binding, and a landlord relying on it is on stronger ground than one relying on an English lease the tenant could not read.
- Some states require the translation outright
- California's Civil Code § 1632 is the best-known: negotiate a residential lease of more than one month primarily in Spanish and you must give the tenant a Spanish translation before signing — the statute also covers Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese and Korean, and a tenant who never received one may rescind. A few other states have narrower versions. Check yours before you rely on an English-only lease.
- Say which version controls when you sign both
- Signing an English lease and a Spanish contrato leaves you with two documents that can drift apart in translation. The optional cláusula de idioma settles it in advance by naming the English version as controlling. Without it, a discrepancy between the two has no answer written down anywhere.
- This is not a state-tailored lease
- Deposit caps and return deadlines, notice periods for termination and entry, late-fee limits and mandatory disclosures all come from state law, and this contrato defers to it rather than reciting it. If you want those written into the document, build the English residential lease for your state and pair the two.
- State and federal disclosures still attach
- A lease in Spanish does not change what has to be disclosed. Federal law still requires the lead-based paint disclosure and pamphlet for housing built before 1978 — the EPA and HUD publish both in Spanish — and any disclosures your state mandates attach as addenda in whichever language the tenant reads.
- Give it to the tenant before signing day
- A lease handed over at the table is read at the table. Send the contrato in advance, leave room for questions, and keep a record that you did — it is the cheapest evidence there is that the tenant understood the terms, and in a § 1632 state it is part of the requirement.
How to write a Contrato de Arrendamiento
Six steps take you from an empty form to a signed lease your tenant can read. The first one is a decision rather than a field — it changes what the last step looks like.
The contrato can stand alone, or sit alongside an English lease. Choose now, because it governs the idioma clause at the end.
- Spanish only — the simplest arrangement, and one set of terms to keep straight
- Spanish and English together — turn the controlling-language clause on
- If you need state-specific terms, build the English lease first and match this to it
Free sample Contrato de Arrendamiento
Here's the wording before you start — the same clauses the generator produces, with the details left blank. Read it through, then build your own version through the guided form and download it as a PDF.
Contrato de Arrendamiento
1. PARTES. El presente Contrato de Arrendamiento (el “Contrato”) se celebra entre (el “Arrendador”) y (el “Arrendatario”), respecto de la vivienda ubicada en (el “Inmueble”), que se destinará exclusivamente a uso habitacional del Arrendatario y de los ocupantes autorizados.
2. PLAZO. El arrendamiento es por plazo fijo: inicia el y termina el , salvo terminación anticipada conforme a este Contrato.
3. RENTA. El Arrendatario pagará una renta mensual de , pagadera por adelantado el día de cada mes, sin necesidad de requerimiento y sin compensación.
4. DEPÓSITO DE GARANTÍA. El Arrendatario ha entregado al Arrendador un depósito de garantía de . El depósito garantiza el cumplimiento del Contrato y podrá aplicarse a daños reales y cargos impagos (excluyendo el desgaste normal). Será devuelto con la relación detallada de deducciones dentro del plazo que exija la ley aplicable.
12. IDIOMA. Las partes pueden firmar también una versión de este contrato en inglés. En caso de discrepancia entre ambas versiones, prevalecerá la versión en inglés.
Renting to a Spanish-speaking tenant?
Real humans read every message — whether it's about pairing the contrato with an English lease, your state's translation rules, or getting it e-signed.