Long-Term Rental Contracts in Quintana Roo: Clauses, Deposits and Both Parties' Rights

Renting a home long-term in Playa del Carmen, Tulum or Cancun is the single most common real estate transaction in the Riviera Maya and, paradoxically, the one most often signed without care. A lease in Quintana Roo is governed by the State’s own Civil Code — not by Mexico City’s, and certainly not by the template contracts that circulate online — and the differences matter: maximum terms, the statutory extension, tacit renewal, notice of termination and the mechanics of an eviction all work differently here.

This guide is written for two readers. The tenant — Mexican, American, Canadian, British or otherwise — who is about to sign a twelve-month lease on a condo in Playacar, a house in Aldea Zama or an apartment in one of Cancun’s supermanzanas. And the landlord who is putting a property into the long-stay market and wants a document that survives a missed payment, a hurricane or a mid-term sale of the building. It walks through the legal framework in force, the clauses that must appear, how the security deposit, the fiador (a personal guarantor who backs the tenant’s obligations) and the póliza jurídica work, what each side owes the other, how the relationship ends, and what taxes the rent generates.

It also covers what changes in 2026: the phased entry into force of the National Code of Civil and Family Procedure in the courts of Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum, which replaces the local desahucio (eviction) proceeding with an oral special leasing proceeding. Everything below is general information built on the official sources cited; it is not a substitute for review by a Quintana Roo–licensed attorney, a notario público (a state-appointed public notary with far broader authority than a US or UK notary) or an accountant.

Key takeaways

• Residential leasing in Quintana Roo is regulated by Title Seven of the State Civil Code (articles 2676 to 2745). The lease must be granted in writing and, unless agreed otherwise, takes effect when the property is handed over (art. 2682).
• The maximum term for property used as a dwelling is ten years, renewable for further periods that individually do not exceed that limit (art. 2676). The State Code sets no minimum: the twelve-month lease is market custom, not a legal requirement.
• The parties enjoy the broadest freedom to set the rent (art. 2677). The ten per cent ceiling that appears in the Code applies only to the statutory extension of up to one year that a tenant in good standing may request when the lease expires (art. 2738).
• The security deposit is not capped or defined by statute; it is contractual. On termination, any balance in the tenant’s favour must be returned immediately, or deposited with the court if the landlord has a right to assert (art. 2693).
• Third-party guarantees (a fiador, loosely called an “aval”) cease on extension or tacit renewal unless agreed otherwise (art. 2740): on renewal, they must be re-ratified.
• Eviction for non-payment is a judicial process. In Cancun and Chetumal it has been handled under the National Code since 1 June 2026; Playa del Carmen joins on 7 September 2026 and Tulum on 9 November 2026. Cutting utilities or changing the locks unilaterally is never lawful.
• Residential rent is exempt from IVA (Mexican VAT, 16%) only if the property is not delivered furnished (IVA Law, art. 20, sec. II). The landlord must issue a CFDI (the SAT-validated digital tax invoice) for every payment and file monthly or quarterly income tax returns with the SAT (Income Tax Law, arts. 116 and 118).

Legal framework: which law governs a lease in Quintana Roo

In Mexico, leasing real property is a civil matter and therefore falls to each state. A contract signed in Solidaridad, Tulum or Benito Juárez is interpreted under the Civil Code for the State of Quintana Roo, whose Title Seven, “Del Arrendamiento,” contains the general provisions, the rights and duties of landlord and tenant, the special rules for urban property, subletting, and the ways the contract ends. The version in force, updated with every amendment published in the State’s Official Gazette, is available on the State Congress portal.

Article 2676 defines the lease as the contract by which one person temporarily grants another the use — and sometimes the enjoyment — of an asset in exchange for a certain price paid periodically. Article 2678 adds a nuance worth remembering whenever foreigners are involved: a lease never confers real rights over the property, only personal rights of use or enjoyment. That is the legal reason why any person, regardless of nationality, can rent a home inside the coastal restricted zone with no fideicomiso (the bank trust foreigners use to hold coastal property) and no permit of any kind.

Around that civil core orbit other rules that are federal and apply identically nationwide:

• The Income Tax Law (Title IV, Chapter III) and the IVA Law determine how the owner is taxed on rental income and when the tenant bears IVA.
• The Federal Law for the Prevention and Identification of Operations with Illicit Proceeds (LFPIORPI, Mexico’s anti-money-laundering statute) turns high-value leasing into a “vulnerable activity” and limits cash payments.
• The Federal Law on Protection of Personal Data Held by Private Parties, replaced in March 2025, governs what a landlord or agency may do with the ID documents, bank statements and personal data collected from an applicant.
• The Federal Consumer Protection Law has limited reach: its article 73 brings real estate transactions under the law only where the provider is a subdivider, builder, developer, or intervenes in the advisory and sale of housing, or in timeshare. A lease between private parties falls, in principle, outside PROFECO’s jurisdiction; disputes are resolved in the State Judiciary’s civil courts or through mediation.

Procedurally, the State is in transition. The Quintana Roo Code of Civil Procedure regulates an oral desahucio proceeding (Title Twenty-Two, Chapter IV) that still applies in the judicial districts where the National Code has not yet taken effect. The calendar is set out further below.

Differences from the Federal Civil Code and Mexico City

Many contracts circulating in the Riviera Maya are adaptations of Mexico City templates and carry rules that do not apply here. Three are worth flagging:

Topic	Federal Civil Code	Quintana Roo Civil Code
Maximum residential term	Ten years (art. 2398)	Ten years; fifteen for retail, offices and consulting rooms; twenty for industrial use (art. 2676)
Minimum residential term	One year binding on both parties, unless agreed otherwise (art. 2448-C)	No statutory minimum
Recording at the Public Registry	Leases over six years, or with rent prepaid more than three years ahead (art. 3042, sec. III)	Title Seven imposes no registration; effect against third parties arises from the buyer’s statutory subrogation (art. 2684)

The Federal Civil Code does offer something useful as a best-practice reference: article 2448-F lists the minimum content of a residential lease (names, location, a detailed description of the property and its fixtures with their condition, the rent, the guarantee, an express statement of residential use, the term and any additional obligations). Although it is not the governing rule in Quintana Roo, it is a good drafting script.

What changes in 2026 with the National Code of Civil and Family Procedure

The National Code, published in the Federal Official Gazette on 7 June 2023, unifies civil procedure across the country and displaces the state procedural codes as each local congress issues its declaration, with a deadline of 1 April 2027. Quintana Roo’s XVIII Legislature approved its declaration at the session of 20 May 2026, with a staggered calendar by judicial district: Chetumal and Cancun from 1 June 2026, Playa del Carmen from 7 September 2026, and Tulum, Bacalar, Felipe Carrillo Puerto, José María Morelos, Cozumel, Kantunilkín and Isla Mujeres from 9 November 2026.

For leasing, that means the route to claim unpaid rent or recover a property stops being the local desahucio proceeding and becomes the Oral Special Real Estate Leasing Proceeding (arts. 520 to 529 of the National Code), with a single hearing, a conciliation stage and shorter deadlines. A contract signed today in Playa del Carmen would be litigated, if it ever came to that, under the new code. It is worth drafting with that in mind: an address for service, a jurisdiction clause and clean payment documentation.

Essential elements of the lease agreement

Written form and start date

Article 2682 requires the lease to be granted in writing and provides that it takes effect, unless agreed otherwise, when the property is handed over. Article 2718 repeats the written-form requirement for subletting. A verbal agreement, or one assembled from WhatsApp messages, can be proved in court, but it puts both parties in the worst possible position: no inventory, no clear term and no enforceable guarantee.

The handover date matters for a second reason: under article 2696, rent begins to accrue on the day the tenant receives the property or acknowledges receipt of it, and stops accruing on the day it is returned. If the contract is signed on the 1st but the keys are handed over on the 10th because a repair was outstanding, the tenant owes rent only from the 10th, unless something else was agreed in writing.

Who may sign as landlord

It sounds obvious, but it is the source of many problems in the Riviera Maya, where a significant share of the rental inventory belongs to foreigners through a fideicomiso, or to companies, and is managed by third parties.

• The registered owner signs personally. Ask for a copy of the escritura (the notarised deed) or of the instrument recorded at the State Public Registry of Property and Commerce, and check the name matches the ID.
• If the property sits in a fideicomiso, the registered holder is the trustee bank. The trust deed normally grants the beneficiary the right to use, occupy and lease the property; review that clause and ask that the lease cite it. How the structure works is explained in the complete guide to the fideicomiso bank trust for foreign buyers.
• If a property manager or agency signs, article 2679 permits a non-owner to lease where authorised by the owner. Ask for the notarised power of attorney or the management agreement, and verify it includes the power to lease and to collect rent.
• If the property has several co-owners, article 2680 requires the unanimous consent of all of them to lease it.
• If the landlord is a Mexican company, review the articles of incorporation and the representative’s powers.

Screening the tenant and data protection

A landlord has a legitimate interest in knowing who will occupy the property and whether they can pay. It is normal to ask for official ID (a Mexican INE card or a passport), proof of income or bank statements, references and, for foreigners, the immigration document. Since March 2025 a new Federal Law on Protection of Personal Data Held by Private Parties has been in force: whoever collects those documents is responsible for their handling, must state through a privacy notice what they will be used for, and may not share or retain them beyond that purpose. Agencies processing dozens of applications a month should take it seriously; so should an individual owner.

Minimum clauses: the control list

The table below gathers what a residential lease in Quintana Roo should contain to be clear, enforceable and consistent with the State Civil Code. It is a drafting guide, not a legal form.

Clause	What it should say	Reference
Parties	Full name, ID, address, landlord’s RFC (tax ID, needed for the CFDI); the capacity in which they sign (owner, trust beneficiary, attorney-in-fact)	Arts. 2679-2680
Subject matter	Full address, lot and block or unit and condominium, parking space, storage unit; land registry folio if known	Art. 2682
Permitted use	Residential use only, number of occupants, prohibition of commercial or vacation-rental use	Art. 2695, sec. III
Term	Start and end dates; whether binding on both parties; renewal mechanics	Arts. 2676, 2737-2739
Rent	Amount, currency, payment date, method, bank account; increases and their basis	Arts. 2677, 2696
Deposit	Amount, purpose, conditions and deadline for return, deductible items	Arts. 2693, 2706
Additional security	Fiador, póliza jurídica or surety bond; duty to ratify on renewal	Arts. 2710, 2740
Utilities	Who pays electricity, water, gas, internet and HOA fees; in whose name the accounts stay	Art. 2687, sec. II
Inventory	Signed handover record, photographs, meter readings, keys delivered	Art. 2706
Repairs	What counts as a necessary repair (landlord) and what as a minor repair (tenant); notice procedure	Arts. 2687-2688, 2695, sec. V
Subletting and assignment	Prohibited without express authorisation; consequences	Arts. 2716-2718
Pets and house rules	Whether allowed; duty to comply with the condominium rules	Art. 2695
Early termination	Notice, penalty, return of the property	Arts. 2736-2741
Force majeure and hurricanes	Rules on rent reduction or suspension; who insures what	Arts. 2698, 2707
Notices and jurisdiction	Contractual addresses, email, submission to the courts where the property is located	CNPCF, art. 89, sec. III
Personal data	Privacy notice and consent	LFPDPPP

Term, renewal and tacit renewal

The term: legal maximum and market practice

Article 2676 sets the ceilings: five years for movable property, ten for property used as a dwelling or for farming and ranching, fifteen for retail, offices, workspaces or consulting rooms, and twenty for industrial property. All of those terms may be renewed for periods that, on each renewal, do not exceed the limit. A twelve-year residential lease would be void as to the excess; a ten-year lease with an option to renew for another ten is valid.

In practice in Playa del Carmen, Tulum and Cancun, the long-stay contract is agreed at twelve months, often six in high-turnover areas such as Centro in Playa or La Veleta in Tulum. The Code imposes no minimum, so a three-month or an eighteen-month lease is equally valid. What does need defining is whether the term is binding on both parties (neither can end it early without cause) or binding on the landlord and optional for the tenant, a common formula when the tenant is a relocated professional who could be moved again.

Ending at expiry, and the statutory one-year extension

Article 2737 is blunt: if the lease was made for a fixed term, it ends on the appointed day with no need for eviction proceedings. No prior notice is required unless the contract demands it, though building in thirty or sixty days’ notice is a courtesy that prevents misunderstandings.

That said, the tenant has a right few people know about. Under article 2738, within fifteen days after the lease expires, and provided they are current on rent, the tenant may request an extension of up to one year. The landlord may then raise the rent by up to ten per cent if they prove that rents in the area have risen enough to justify it. Owners who want to occupy the home themselves are exempt from the duty to extend; if, three months after the ruling becomes final, the landlord is not living there, they can be ordered to compensate the tenant with up to twelve months’ rent.

Two practical readings. For the tenant: if you need one more year and the owner refuses without intending to move in, the law backs you, though asserting it requires litigation. For the landlord: the clean way to avoid the statutory extension is to negotiate a written renewal in good time, with a new rent and re-ratified guarantees, rather than letting the contract lapse in silence.

Tacit renewal and open-ended contracts

If, once the lease and any extension have ended, the tenant remains in occupation without objection, article 2739 treats the contract as renewed for an indefinite term where the property is urban, at the same rent that was being paid. This is what has happened in a great many condos in Cancun and Playa del Carmen: the twelve-month contract expired three years ago and nobody signed anything.

That situation has precise consequences. First, the contract becomes governed by Chapter Six: either party may bring it to an end by giving the other unequivocal notice two months in advance where the property is urban (art. 2714). Second, after that notice the tenant must allow signs to be posted and show the interior to prospective tenants (art. 2715). Third — and this is the point that matters most to owners — under article 2740, on extension or tacit renewal the obligations granted by a third party to secure the lease cease, unless agreed otherwise. The fiador who signed in 2023 no longer answers in 2026 if the contract renewed itself de facto.

The fix is simple: renew in writing at each expiry with an amending agreement setting the new term and rent, signed by the fiador as well, or agree from the outset that the guarantee extends to all extensions and renewals.

The long-standing tenant’s right of first refusal

Article 2708 grants a tenant who has occupied the property for more than five years and made significant improvements, and who is current on rent, the right to be preferred on equal terms over another candidate for a new lease, and a right of first refusal if the owner decides to sell, following the notarial or judicial notice procedure of article 1999. In Quintana Roo, unlike under the Federal Civil Code, this preference is not automatic for every tenant: it requires both length of tenure and meaningful improvements.

Rent, increases and payment mechanics

Freedom of contract and currency

Article 2677 gives the parties the broadest freedom to set the rent. There is no price control and no annual cap in state law. Increases must be agreed in the contract; the most common formulas in the Riviera Maya are a fixed annual percentage or the movement of the National Consumer Price Index published by INEGI. If the contract says nothing and is renewed in writing, the rent is whatever the parties agree; if tacit renewal operates, the previous rent carries over.

On currency, the Quintana Roo Code does not require the rent to be stated in pesos, unlike the Federal Civil Code (art. 2448-D). In areas with strong foreign demand, such as Tulum or Cancun’s Hotel Zone, dollar-denominated contracts do appear. Bear in mind that the Monetary Law allows a debtor to settle in national currency at the exchange rate in force at the place and date of payment, so the clause must specify which exchange rate is used and as of what date. For a landlord filing with the SAT, dollar rent complicates the CFDI and the bookkeeping; many opt for pesos with an annual adjustment.

Frequency, place of payment and receipts

Unless agreed otherwise, rent is payable monthly at the agreed place or, failing that, at the tenant’s home or office (art. 2696). Modern practice is a bank transfer to an account in the landlord’s name, with the rental CFDI as the receipt. That tax invoice is not optional: article 118, section III, of the Income Tax Law obliges the landlord to issue it, and in leasing suits where the tenant is ordered to pay arrears, the judge must require the landlord to prove the CFDIs were issued, reporting to the SAT if they were not. An owner collecting off the books has a procedural problem on top of a tax problem.

Cash payment has another limit. The LFPIORPI prohibits settling in cash the creation of personal rights of use or enjoyment over real property above a threshold expressed in multiples of the Unidad de Medida y Actualización (UMA, the official daily reference unit), and treats as a vulnerable activity, subject to client identification, any lease with monthly rent above 1,605 times the daily UMA value, with a duty to report to the Finance Ministry when the monthly transaction equals or exceeds 3,210 times (art. 17, sec. XV). With the 2026 UMA value published by INEGI (around 117 pesos a day; each annual value applies from 1 February), those thresholds sit near 188,000 and 377,000 pesos a month respectively — beachfront villa territory in Playacar Phase I or Puerto Cancún, not the average condo, but a landlord or premium property manager needs to know them.

Late-payment interest and contractual penalties

The contract may set interest on late payment or a liquidated-damages penalty. The State Civil Code, like the other Mexican codes, limits contractual penalties so they exceed neither the value nor the amount of the principal obligation, and a judge may moderate abusive clauses. Reasonable late interest, expressed per day of delay and capped, enforces better than a disproportionate penalty the court will end up cutting down.

Security deposit, fiador, “aval” and póliza jurídica

No part of the contract generates more disputes than the security arrangements. It is worth separating four instruments that everyday practice lumps together under the word “deposit.”

The security deposit

The Quintana Roo Civil Code neither regulates the security deposit specifically nor sets its amount; it is left to the parties. Custom in the Riviera Maya is one month’s rent for unfurnished housing and one to two months for furnished; some owners of high-end condos in Coco Beach or Aldea Zama ask for more. These are market practices, not legal rules.

What the law does say is how it is settled. Under article 2693, if on termination there is a balance in the tenant’s favour, the landlord must return it immediately, unless the landlord has some right to assert against the tenant, in which case the balance is deposited with the court. The same rule applies to any balance held by the tenant in the landlord’s favour. The correct reading: the deposit is not “the last month’s rent,” it is not the owner’s income, and it cannot be withheld indefinitely “until the electricity bill arrives.” Where there is damage or arrears, the landlord must quantify and document them and, if the tenant disputes them, deposit the difference with the court.

A well-drafted contract sets out: the amount; that it is delivered as security for performance and not as prepaid rent; the deductible items (unpaid rent, unpaid utilities, damage beyond normal wear and tear, replacement of keys and remotes); the deadline for return (fifteen to thirty days after handover is reasonable, to allow CFE and water bills to arrive); the duty to give the tenant a written breakdown of deductions; and whether the deposit earns interest. Article 2706 makes the difference: if the tenant received the property with an express description of its parts, they must return it as received, save for what time or an unavoidable cause has worn down; if they received it without a description, the law presumes it was in good condition, unless proven otherwise. Without an inventory, the landlord bears the burden of proving every item of damage.

Fiador and the so-called “aval”

Everyday Spanish speaks of an “aval,” but legally the aval belongs to negotiable instruments. Whoever guarantees a lease is a fiador, governed by the suretyship title of the Civil Code. Landlords usually require the fiador to own an unencumbered property in the State, so it can be attached if the tenant defaults, and to bind themselves as joint and several guarantor, waiving the benefits of order and prior exhaustion that would otherwise let them insist the principal debtor be pursued first.

Article 2710 contains a tenant-protective rule: the owner may not refuse as fiador a person who meets the requirements the law sets for the role. And article 2740, already discussed, ends the guarantee on extension or tacit renewal unless agreed otherwise. For newly arrived foreign tenants, finding a fiador who owns property in Quintana Roo is close to impossible; hence the rise of the póliza jurídica.

The póliza jurídica

The “póliza jurídica” is a private service, offered by law firms and specialist companies, combining candidate screening (identity, credit history, references, ability to pay), drafting or reviewing the contract, sometimes its ratification before a notario público, and a commitment to run the recovery proceeding if the tenant defaults. Some include coverage of lost rent up to a number of months; most do not, or offer it as an add-on.

It is worth understanding what it is not. It is not an insurance policy or a surety bond regulated by the National Insurance and Surety Commission, unless it is issued by an authorised surety or insurance institution — in which case we are talking about a fianza de arrendamiento (rental surety bond) or a rent-default insurance policy, different products, generally more expensive and with real financial coverage. The typical póliza jurídica is a legal services contract: its value depends on the quality of the firm, on how clearly it states what is covered (fees, court costs, number of service attempts, who pays for the physical eviction) and on the lease being well drafted in the first place.

On price, market practice in Playa del Carmen and Cancun is a percentage of the annual rent, and who pays is negotiable: it is frequently passed to the tenant as the condition for waiving the fiador requirement, even though the party protected is the landlord. Any specific figure quoted to you should be put in writing, with IVA and with the coverage spelled out.

Ratification before a notario and its procedural effect

Ratifying the contract before a Quintana Roo notario público — that is, having the parties acknowledge their signatures before the public officer — has an effect that the póliza jurídica typically exploits. Article 1003 of the State Code of Civil Procedure allows the landlord, where the contract was granted or ratified before a public officer and the tenant fails to prove they are current, to request attachment of assets sufficient to cover the rent owed and the rent that will accrue until the property is vacated. It is a modest notarial cost that materially improves the owner’s position against a default.

The landlord’s obligations

Article 2687 imposes four basic obligations on the landlord, even absent express agreement:

1. Keep the property fit for the agreed use, making all necessary repairs. Water pumps, water heaters, air conditioning units that came with the property, waterproofing, electrical and plumbing installations: the burden sits with the owner.
2. Not to obstruct or hinder use of the property or the supply of basic utilities, save for urgent and indispensable repairs. The wording in force expressly mentions the supply of basic utilities, so cutting off electricity, water or gas as pressure over unpaid rent is a breach of contract, as well as exposing the owner to liability for dispossession.
3. Guarantee peaceful use or enjoyment throughout the contract.
4. Answer for damages arising from hidden defects existing before the lease.

Article 2688 governs failure to repair: the tenant must give prompt notice of the need for repairs; if the landlord does not carry them out, the tenant may sue for rescission or ask the judge to compel them, and if even then they are not done within the period set at the enforcement stage, the judge may authorise the tenant to make them and offset the cost against rent. Deducting repairs from rent without that judicial authorisation or a written agreement is risky: formally it still counts as non-payment.

Other owner obligations the contract should reflect:

• Defects preventing use (art. 2692): the tenant may seek a rent reduction or rescission, unless they knew of the defect when contracting. Structural damp, leaks in the rainy season and pre-existing infestations belong here.
• Hygiene and sanitary conditions (art. 2709): a property that does not meet them may not be leased, and an owner who fails to carry out works ordered by the authorities answers for the damage; that right to compensation cannot be waived in advance.
• Improvements (art. 2694): the landlord pays for improvements they authorised and agreed to pay for, for useful improvements where the contract is rescinded through their fault, and for authorised improvements in open-ended contracts where the lease ends before the tenant has recouped their value through use.
• Sale of the property during the lease (art. 2684): the lease survives, and the buyer is subrogated by operation of law into the landlord’s rights and obligations. The tenant must pay the new owner from the moment title is notified to them judicially, or before a notario or two witnesses; prepaid rent is only effective against the buyer if it appeared in the contract.
• Predial (municipal property tax) and condominium fees: predial is the owner’s obligation towards the municipal treasury of Solidaridad, Tulum or Benito Juárez; maintenance fees are the unit owner’s debt towards the condominium. Both can be passed on economically to the tenant only by express agreement, and even then the party liable to the municipality and the condominium remains the owner. How those fees work and what the administration can demand is set out in the guide on the condominium regime and HOA fees in Playa del Carmen.

Utilities: CFE, water, gas and internet

The contract must say who pays each service and in whose name the account with the provider stays. In Solidaridad, Benito Juárez, Puerto Morelos and Isla Mujeres, drinking water is currently operated by the concessionaire Aguakan; in Tulum, by the Comisión de Agua Potable y Alcantarillado (CAPA). Electricity is supplied by CFE throughout the State, with residential tariffs that in summer, with air conditioning running, become the largest variable expense of a Riviera Maya condo. The usual arrangement is for the service contracts to stay in the owner’s name with the tenant paying the bills and producing receipts; transferring the CFE account to the tenant is possible, but complicates the handback at the end. Internet and television are typically contracted by the tenant in their own name. In every case, the landlord must deliver the property free of utility arrears and with meter readings noted in the handover record.

The tenant’s obligations

Article 2695 lists the tenant’s obligations, which the contract may detail but cannot remove:

1. Pay the rent in the manner and at the time agreed.
2. Answer for damage the property suffers through their fault or negligence, or that of their family, guests, household staff or subtenants.
3. Use the property only for the agreed purpose, or in accordance with its nature and destination. A condo rented as a home but operated as an office, a warehouse or tourist lodging gives grounds for rescission.
4. Answer for fire damage, unless it arises from force majeure, an act of God, a construction defect, or spread from elsewhere despite precautions having been taken (arts. 2700 to 2703).
5. Carry out minor repairs of the kind ordinarily caused by living in a house: light bulbs, washers, door locks, cleaning air-conditioning filters, periodic fumigation in a tropical climate.
6. Return the property when the contract ends.
7. Comply with any other obligations the law imposes.

To these are added scattered rules every tenant should know:

• Do not alter the property without express consent; if they do, they must restore it on return and answer for damage (art. 2705). Repainting in another colour, removing closets, drilling walls to install mini-split units or changing locks all require written authorisation.
• Report encroachments or harmful works that a third party carries out or prepares on the property (art. 2690), and give prompt notice of the need for repairs (art. 2688).
• Do not sublet or assign rights without the landlord’s authorisation (art. 2716). Doing so grounds rescission, voids the sublease and makes tenant and subtenant jointly liable. Listing the condo on vacation-rental platforms while paying monthly rent is exactly that, and usually breaches the condominium rules as well.
• Comply with the condominium rules: moving hours, use of amenities, visitor registration, pets. The contract should attach them and the tenant should sign for receipt.
• Force majeure and acts of God (art. 2698): if use of the property is entirely prevented, no rent accrues while the impediment lasts and, if it lasts more than two months, the tenant may seek rescission; if the impediment is partial, a rent reduction is available on expert assessment. This provision cannot be waived and it is the one that applies when a hurricane leaves a home in Tulum or Playa del Carmen uninhabitable. Article 2707 extends the same logic to loss of use caused by repairs.

Inventory, handover and return of the property

The handover record is the document that decides, months or years later, who pays for what. In a furnished-housing market like the Riviera Maya’s, where a condo in Zazil-Ha or Gonzalo Guerrero may be delivered with appliances, mattresses, tableware and décor, the express description contemplated by article 2706 is worth as much as the contract itself.

A useful handover record includes:

• Date, time and signatures of both parties or their representatives.
• CFE and water meter readings, and the status of the utility accounts.
• A list of keys, access cards, gate remotes and air-conditioning remotes handed over.
• An inventory of furniture and equipment room by room, with make and model of appliances and their condition (new, good, worn, damaged).
• The condition of paint, floors, walls, ceilings, windows, insect screens, blinds and ironwork, with dated photographs or a video recorded in the presence of both parties.
• Working order of the installations: water pump, water heater, mini-splits, outlets, showers, stopcocks, drainage, gas.
• A statement that the property is delivered clean, fumigated and free of utility and maintenance-fee arrears.

At the end, the return mirrors the process. Article 2706 protects the tenant against deterioration caused by time or an unavoidable cause: normal wear on paint after two years, the corrosion that sea salt produces on ironwork, or the ageing of a mattress are not attributable damage. What is: burns on countertops, walls drilled without authorisation, appliances broken through misuse, unauthorised pets that damaged doors. The landlord must quantify with real quotations, not estimates, and hand over the breakdown together with the deposit refund.

One detail specific to furnished housing: article 2724 treats the lease of the furniture as running for the same period as the lease of the property, unless stipulated otherwise, and articles 2725 to 2727 place small repairs of the furniture on the tenant and presume their loss or deterioration to be the tenant’s responsibility, unless they prove it occurred without fault. A detailed inventory is, once again, the only reasonable defence for both sides.

Early termination, rescission and eviction

How a lease comes to an end

Article 2736 lists how the contract ends: expiry of the agreed term or fulfilment of its purpose; express agreement; nullity; rescission; merger; total loss or destruction of the property through force majeure or an act of God; expropriation; and eviction by title. Outside those scenarios, and outside the two-month notice in open-ended contracts, unilateral termination before the term is a breach that generates liability.

That is why the early termination clause matters so much in a long-term lease. The most common formulas in Playa del Carmen and Cancun are: allowing the tenant to terminate after a minimum period with thirty or sixty days’ notice and a penalty equal to one or two months’ rent, frequently satisfied out of the deposit; and allowing the landlord to terminate only for objective causes (sale with vacant possession, need to occupy the home) with longer notice and, sometimes, compensation. Any penalty must respect the limit on contractual penalties discussed above.

Two statutory rules complete the picture. The death of either landlord or tenant does not rescind the contract, which continues with the heirs, who must notify in writing who will represent them (art. 2683). And a judicial sale of the property does not extinguish the lease unless it was entered into within the sixty days preceding attachment of the property (art. 2744).

Grounds for rescission available to the landlord

Article 2741 allows the landlord to seek rescission for non-payment of rent, for using the property contrary to the agreed purpose, and for subletting without authorisation. The contract may add reasonable grounds (serious damage, repeated nuisance to neighbours, occupation by unauthorised persons, prohibited pets, breach of the condominium rules), but they will always have to be proved in court. What the landlord may never do is “self-help rescission”: changing locks, removing belongings, cutting utilities or blocking access. That is dispossession, punishable under State criminal law, and it turns the owner into the defendant.

Grounds for rescission available to the tenant

The tenant may seek rescission where the landlord fails to make necessary repairs (art. 2688), where defects prevent use (art. 2692), where an impediment from force majeure or from repairs lasts more than two months (arts. 2698 and 2707), where the landlord unreasonably objects to a sublease the tenant is entitled to grant (art. 2742), and where the owner loses a lawsuit over part of the property (art. 2691). Here too, form matters: notices should be in writing, with proof of receipt, and preferably with photographs or expert reports.

How an eviction is processed in Quintana Roo today

An owner facing non-payment has a special judicial route, which differs by judicial district and date.

Where the State Code of Civil Procedure still governs, the oral desahucio proceeding (articles 1003 onwards) requires the claim to be founded on failure to pay two or more monthly instalments and to be accompanied by the written contract. The judge requires the tenant to prove they are current; if they cannot, the judge orders them to vacate within thirty business days, warned of eviction at their own expense, and serves them to raise defences within nine days. If the contract was ratified before a public officer, attachment of assets may be ordered for the rent owed and the rent that continues to accrue. If the property is empty, provisional possession may be granted to the landlord. The periods the chapter grants the tenant cannot be waived; counterclaim and set-off are not available; and the tenant can halt the eviction by paying all the rent owed within the deadline, with or without costs depending on the moment. Only those defences the Civil Code allows for withholding rent are admitted (arts. 2698, 2699 and 2707).

Where the National Code of Civil and Family Procedure is already in force, the Oral Special Real Estate Leasing Proceeding applies (arts. 520 to 529). The claim must be accompanied by the contract where one was made in writing; the defendant has fifteen days to answer and, where applicable, counterclaim; the trial hearing is set within the following fifteen days, opens with a conciliation and mediation stage, and ends with the judgment explained orally and delivered in writing within no more than two days. Where two or more months of arrears are claimed, the claimant may ask that the tenant prove they are current when served or when answering, and failing that, sufficient assets are attached (art. 525). The leased property is always treated as the defendant’s legal address for service (art. 526); appeal against the judgment does not suspend enforcement (art. 528). The conciliation stage is no minor formality: an agreement reached at the hearing, with a payment schedule or a firm handover date, is approved by the judge and enforced as if it were a judgment, which is usually faster and cheaper for both sides than reaching physical eviction. Territorial jurisdiction belongs to the judge of the place where the property is located (art. 89, sec. III).

Judicial district	Code applicable to a newly filed case	From
Cancun (Benito Juárez), Chetumal	National Code of Civil and Family Procedure	1 June 2026
Playa del Carmen (Solidaridad)	National Code of Civil and Family Procedure	7 September 2026
Tulum, Cozumel, Isla Mujeres, Bacalar, Felipe Carrillo Puerto, José María Morelos, Kantunilkín	National Code of Civil and Family Procedure	9 November 2026

Proceedings filed before each date are, as a general rule, concluded under the code they began with. In any case, the real duration of an eviction depends on court caseloads and on locating the defendant; pre-litigation mediation through the State Judiciary’s alternative dispute mechanisms resolves many cases in weeks and produces an enforceable settlement.

Taxation of rental income: ISR, IVA, CFDI and anti-money-laundering

Income tax for a Mexican-resident individual landlord

Rental income is taxed under Title IV, Chapter III of the Income Tax Law (arts. 114 to 118). The landlord must register with the RFC under the leasing regime, keep accounts, issue a CFDI for every rent payment collected, make provisional payments and file an annual return, and report to the SAT any cash collections above one hundred thousand pesos (art. 118).

Provisional payments are due by the 17th of the following month (art. 116); those whose only income is from leasing and who stay below the threshold set by law may file quarterly. To calculate the base, article 115 allows a choice between deducting actual expenses (predial, betterment levies, maintenance, interest on loans to acquire or improve the property, wages, insurance premiums, depreciation of the construction) or applying the so-called optional deduction of 35% of income, plus the predial paid during the year. For a condo with few documented deductible expenses, the 35% option is usually the more practical one; an accountant should confirm it case by case.

Where the tenant is a legal entity — for example a company renting housing for its executives in Cancun — it must withhold income tax as a provisional payment under the Income Tax Law and, where applicable, part of the IVA under the IVA Law, giving the landlord the corresponding withholding certificate. The contract should anticipate this so the net rent surprises nobody.

IVA: the difference between furnished and unfurnished

Article 20, section II, of the IVA Law exempts from the tax the temporary use or enjoyment of property intended for or used exclusively as a dwelling. The exemption does not apply to property, or parts of it, supplied furnished, or used as hotels or lodging houses. In the Riviera Maya, where most long-term rental condos are offered furnished, this means the rent attracts IVA at the general 16% rate, which the landlord must charge on the CFDI and remit to the SAT. A furnished-housing contract that says nothing about IVA usually ends in an argument over whether the agreed rent includes it; the clause should say so expressly.

Foreign and non-resident landlords

A foreign owner renting out a Tulum condo long-term has exactly the same tax obligations as a Mexican if they are a Mexican tax resident. If they are not, their income from leasing property located in the country is taxed under Title V of the Income Tax Law, at a rate on gross income and without deductions, either through withholding where the payer is obliged to withhold, or through the landlord’s own return. That treatment, the possible application of a double taxation treaty — Mexico has one with the United States, one with Canada and one with the United Kingdom — and the figure of the legal representative in Mexico are matters for an accountant experienced with non-residents; the common mistake is to declare nothing and discover the problem on sale, when the notario reviews the tax history. The implications for anyone weighing a buy-to-rent purchase are analysed in the guide on vacation rental versus long-term rental returns.

Anti-money-laundering and cash

Beyond the identification and reporting thresholds of article 17, section XV, the LFPIORPI prohibits cash payment of real estate transactions above certain amounts expressed in UMA (art. 32). Ordinary residential leasing rarely reaches those limits, but a luxury villa manager or a firm handling dozens of rentals must register the vulnerable activity, identify its clients and retain the documentation. For everyone else, the practical rule is simple: rent by bank transfer, with a CFDI.

Foreigners as tenants and as landlords

Renting as a foreigner

As noted above, the restriction in article 27 of the Constitution and in the Foreign Investment Law concerns direct ownership of real estate within one hundred kilometres of the border and fifty of the coast — which is all of Quintana Roo. Leasing, which confers only personal rights (art. 2678 of the State Civil Code), is not subject to it. An American, Canadian or British citizen can sign a ten-year lease in Playa del Carmen with no permit whatsoever. The details of that restricted zone and of the structures available for acquiring are explained in the guide on the restricted zone and using a Mexican corporation to buy property.

What does change is practice. A prudent landlord will ask for a passport and, if the tenant holds one, a temporary or permanent resident card; a visitor’s immigration form does not invalidate the contract, but it signals that the tenant cannot lawfully stay more than 180 days and will probably leave the country before the term ends. Proof of income is handled with foreign bank statements, an employer letter or a remote work contract. The lack of a fiador owning property in Mexico is substituted with a póliza jurídica, a larger deposit, or several months paid in advance — which must be documented as prepaid rent with its CFDIs, not as a deposit.

Two practical pieces of advice for the foreign tenant. First, insist the contract be in Spanish; a courtesy translation may accompany it, but the Spanish version is what a Quintana Roo judge will apply, and the contract itself should say so. Second, keep the signed contract and the CFDIs: a lease in your name is one of the proofs of address accepted by the Instituto Nacional de Migración, by banks, and for procedures such as obtaining a CURP or a state driving licence.

The foreign landlord and the fideicomiso

Where the owner is a foreigner, the property is normally held in a fideicomiso. The lease must identify the trust beneficiary as landlord, cite the trust number and the clause that empowers them to lease, and make clear which account the rent is paid into. The trustee bank does not sign or take part in an ordinary lease. If the owner lives outside Mexico, a local manager holding a power of attorney is indispensable for handling repairs, issuing CFDIs and attending a conciliation hearing; a power of attorney granted abroad requires an apostille or legalisation and protocolisation in Mexico.

Common mistakes and red flags

For tenants:

• Signing without seeing the escritura or the fideicomiso, or with an “owner” who turns out to be another tenant subletting without authorisation.
• Paying the deposit and first month in cash with no receipt and no CFDI. If a dispute arises, there is no proof of payment.
• Accepting an English-language contract with no prevailing Spanish version.
• Taking possession with no handover record and no photographs. The presumption in article 2706 will work against you.
• Ignoring the condominium rules and discovering that pets, pool guests or night-time moves are prohibited.
• Assuming the deposit covers the last month’s rent and simply stopping payment.

For landlords:

• Renewing verbally and losing the fiador by operation of article 2740.
• Collecting without issuing CFDIs and discovering, in a suit for arrears, that the judge requires proof of the invoices and notifies the SAT if they do not exist.
• Cutting the power, water or internet, or changing the lock, and becoming the defendant in a dispossession claim.
• Withholding the whole deposit with no breakdown and no quotations, or “because the property was left dirty.”
• Tacitly tolerating subletting on vacation platforms and then trying to rescind without ever having objected in writing.
• Delivering a furnished condo with no inventory and then trying to charge for the mattress, the refrigerator and the tableware at the end.
• Drafting disproportionate penalties that the judge will reduce, instead of clear late-payment interest.

Red flags for both sides:

• Pressure to sign “today” or to transfer the deposit before seeing the property in person or through a trusted third party.
• Listings priced well below the area (Centro, Playacar, Aldea Zama, La Veleta, Puerto Cancún) with communication exclusively through messaging apps.
• Refusal to ratify the contract before a notario when the other party offers to cover the cost.
• An intermediary charging both sides with no service agreement and no invoice. An agency acting professionally must formalise its service; review of brokerage forms is, where applicable, PROFECO’s territory.

A checklist to run before signing

Before signing a long-term lease in Quintana Roo, verify point by point:

On the property and the landlord

• A copy of the escritura or the fideicomiso, matching the landlord’s ID.
• A power of attorney or management agreement if a third party signs, with express authority to lease and collect.
• Predial and maintenance fees current; a certificate of no utility arrears.
• Condominium rules handed over and signed for.

On the contract

• A defined term, binding or optional for each party, with written renewal mechanics.
• Rent in pesos or with a clear exchange-rate clause; payment date and method; defined increases.
• IVA expressly addressed if the property is furnished.
• Deposit: amount, purpose, deductible items, deadline for return and a mandatory breakdown.
• Additional security (fiador, póliza jurídica or surety bond) and its extension to renewals.
• Utilities: who pays each one and in whose name the accounts sit.
• Repairs: what falls to each party and how notice is given.
• Prohibition of subletting and vacation rental, residential use, number of occupants, pets.
• Early termination with notice and a proportionate penalty.
• Force majeure and hurricanes: suspension or reduction of rent under article 2698.
• Addresses and emails for notices, and submission to the courts where the property is located.
• Spanish version prevailing; privacy notice.
• Ratification before a notario público, if the parties agree to it.

On the handover

• A handover record with inventory, photographs, meter readings, keys and remotes.
• The landlord’s first CFDI issued, and proof of the deposit transfer.

If you are looking for where to apply all of this, browse the condos for rent in Playa del Carmen, the houses for rent in Tulum or the full catalogue of Riviera Maya properties. For a practical view of neighbourhoods, price levels and requirements in the most in-demand city, the complete guide to renting an apartment in Playa del Carmen complements this legal framework. And if you would like us to review a contract or point you to a local attorney before you sign, you can get in touch.

Frequently asked questions

How long can a residential lease legally run in Quintana Roo?

The State Civil Code caps leases of property used as a dwelling at ten years, renewable for further terms that individually do not exceed that limit (art. 2676). It sets no minimum: the twelve-month contract that is standard in Playa del Carmen, Tulum and Cancun is a market convention, not a legal requirement, and six- or eighteen-month contracts are equally valid.

Can a landlord raise the rent by 10% every year in Quintana Roo?

The law gives the parties full freedom to agree the rent and any increases in the contract (art. 2677). The ten per cent ceiling mentioned in article 2738 applies only to the statutory extension of up to one year that a tenant in good standing may request within fifteen days after expiry, and only if the landlord proves that rents in the area have risen. Outside that scenario, the increase is whatever the contract says.

What happens to the guarantor when the lease is renewed or extended?

Unless agreed otherwise, obligations granted by a third party to secure a lease cease when the contract is extended or rolls over by tacit renewal (art. 2740). When renewing, the landlord must therefore have the fiador ratify the guarantee in writing, or include from the outset a clause extending it expressly to all renewals and extensions.

Can a landlord cut the power or water to a tenant who has not paid?

No. Article 2687, section II, obliges the landlord not to interfere with use of the property or with the supply of basic utilities, save for urgent and indispensable repairs. Non-payment is dealt with in court: the desahucio proceeding under the State Code of Civil Procedure or, in the districts where it already applies, the oral special leasing proceeding of the National Code. Cutting utilities or changing locks exposes the owner to civil and criminal liability.

Is IVA charged on the rent of a furnished apartment?

Yes. Article 20, section II, of the IVA Law exempts the use of property intended exclusively as a dwelling, but the exemption does not apply to property supplied furnished, or operated as hotels or lodging houses. The landlord of a furnished home must charge the tax on the CFDI and report it; the contract should state whether the agreed rent includes it.

Can a foreigner sign a long-term lease in Mexico without residency?

Yes. The constitutional restrictions on foreigners concern ownership of real estate in the restricted zone, not leasing, which grants only personal rights of use (art. 2678). The landlord may ask for a passport and, where applicable, an immigration document, but immigration status is not a validity requirement of the contract. The signed lease and the CFDIs then serve as proof of address before the Instituto Nacional de Migración and other institutions.