Croatia's draft new lease law: what it proposes

Where the law stands

This guide describes a draft that isn't law. Status on 19 October 2026: the consultation closed on 2 September 2026, and the law hasn't been passed or published in Narodne novine, the official gazette. The current Housing Lease Act still applies to existing and new leases.

• 31 July 2026: minister Branko Bačić presented the new Zakon o najmu stanova and seven implementing regulations.
• 3 August to 2 September 2026: the 61-article draft was open for comment on e-Savjetovanja and drew 264 comments (213 general, 51 proposals on the text).
• 1 October 2026: the date set for the consultation report. On 19 October 2026 the consultation page still showed none.
• 19 October 2026: we found no final Government bill and no entry for it in the Sabor (parliament), and the law on zakon.hr is unchanged.
• 1 January 2027: the start date the draft proposes (Art. 61).

After 264 comments the text may still change. We'll update this page at each stage: the consultation report, the Government bill, the readings in the Sabor and publication in Narodne novine.

Leases made before a notary

Today a written lease is enough (Housing Lease Act, Art. 4). The draft would require every lease to be a notarial deed or solemnisedSolemnisation (solemnizacija)simplifiedA notary confirms a contract: checks it, explains the consequences and gives it the force of a notarial deed. With an enforcement clause it becomes an enforcement title.Source: Zakon o javnom bilježništvu (NN 78/93 … 57/22), čl. 54. i 59., checked 19 Oct 2026More in the glossary by a notary, and a lease signed in any other form after the law takes effect wouldn't be valid (Art. 7).

• The lease would allow direct enforcement for the tenant's obligations and damage up to five months' rent, and for handing the flat back once there are grounds to end the lease (Art. 7).
• The landlord would pay the notary unless agreed otherwise, and the notary would send the lease to Porezna uprava (the Tax Administration) within 30 days (Art. 7).
• Lets of under 30 days wouldn't be leases under the Act (Art. 6), and a fixed-term lease of more than five years would be treated as open-ended, except for its end date (Art. 5).

Moving in, the deposit and living there

• A handover recordHandover record (zapisnik o primopredaji)A record of the flat's condition that landlord and tenant draw up together at handover. It's the evidence if damage or the deposit is disputed when the lease ends.Source: Zakon o najmu stanova (NN 91/96 … 105/20), čl. 12., checked 19 Oct 2026More in the glossary would be mandatory, with the flat's condition, all meter readings and photos of every room (Art. 13).
• The depositDeposit (polog)simplifiedMoney the tenant pays as security for unpaid rent, bills or damage, and gets back at the end of the lease. The lease sets the amount and when it's returned.Source: Zakon o najmu stanova (NN 91/96 … 105/20), čl. 3. i 17., checked 19 Oct 2026More in the glossary would be one month's rent unless agreed otherwise, returned at move-out if the rent and bills are paid and the flat comes back as received, minor wear aside, or the damage is paid for. The draft sets no deadline for returning it (Art. 18).
• The landlord could inspect the flat twice a year with at least three days' notice, unless the lease says otherwise (Art. 15).
• The tenant would pay the utilitiesUtilities (režije)Housing costs on top of rent: electricity, gas or heating, water, waste, the reserve fund, the HRT licence fee and internet. The lease decides which the tenant pays.Source: Zakon o najmu stanova (NN 91/96 … 105/20), čl. 5., checked 19 Oct 2026More in the glossary unless agreed otherwise, and the building reserve fund (pričuva)Reserve fund (pričuva)simplifiedMoney the co-owners pay each month to maintain the building's common parts and run it. The flat's owner owes it to the building, not the tenant.Source: Zakon o upravljanju i održavanju zgrada (NN 152/24, 47/26), čl. 28. i 29., checked 19 Oct 2026More in the glossary only if the lease expressly says so (Art. 14).
• If the landlord doesn't do needed work within a reasonable time, the tenant could have an authorised contractor do it at the landlord's cost, but couldn't deduct it from the rent without a final court decision (Art. 9).
• The landlord couldn't refuse consent to an alteration that meets the listed conditions, and the tenant's unamortised investment would be refunded (Art. 19).
• The landlord would give the building's co-owners' representativeCo-owners' representative (predstavnik suvlasnika)simplifiedThe co-owner whom a building's owners elect to represent them in running it and to work with the manager. An owner must report a change of tenant to them within 15 days.Source: Zakon o upravljanju i održavanju zgrada (NN 152/24, 47/26), čl. 41. i 42., checked 19 Oct 2026More in the glossary and manager the tenant's name, OIBOIB (personal identification number)Croatia's personal identification number, a permanent identifier used in official records. Croatians get it at birth; foreigners when there's a reason to.Source: Porezna uprava: Osobni identifikacijski broj (OIB), checked 19 Oct 2026More in the glossary (personal ID number) and contact details (Art. 12).

Notice and ending the lease

Today a fixed-term lease renews tacitly, and a landlord can give notice only on the grounds the Act lists (guide to ending a lease). The draft would change that:

• Tenants could end any lease without giving a reason, on 60 days' notice unless agreed otherwise (Art. 21).
• Landlords could end a market lease without a reason too, giving at least six months to move out, a year if the lease has run over five years, and six months more if a minor child registered at the address for at least six months lives there. The lease could shorten this, but not below three months (Art. 23).
• For breaches such as rent or bills unpaid for over 45 days, the landlord would give notice after a written warning allowing at least 15 days to put things right (with exceptions), and the tenant would get at least 30 days to move out (Art. 22).
• Notice would run from receipt, rather than from the first day of the next month as it does now. If the tenant stays, the landlord would get a certificate of enforceability from the notary and apply for enforcement (Art. 24).
• A tenant given unjustified notice for a breach could claim at least five months' rent in damages, but that case wouldn't stop the evictionMoving out and eviction (iseljenje)simplifiedThe tenant leaving the flat at the end of a lease. If they don't leave, the landlord can sue, and a court officer carries out the eviction, never the landlord.Source: Ovršni zakon (NN 112/12 … 06/24), čl. 255.–258., checked 24 Oct 2026More in the glossary (Art. 25).
• Fixed-term leases would end on expiry unless agreed otherwise. The tenant would ask for an extension at least 60 days before the end and the landlord answer within 30 days, replacing tacit renewal (Art. 17).

Rent and the cap on rises

The starting rent would still be set freely. Under the draft it could rise once a year, on 30 days' notice, by no more than residential property prices rose the year before according to DZS, the national statistics office. A clause allowing more would be void, and a rise would give the tenant a justified reason to leave on at least 30 days' notice (Art. 31).

Under draft Art. 58 the Act would also apply to leases signed before it takes effect, so, as we read it, this cap would too. Those leases would stay in force, and only new leases would be invalid without a notary (Arts. 7, 56 and 58).

A state guarantee and state-owned flats

The draft also provides for an optional state guarantee for landlords who are private individuals. The Agencija za osiguranje radničkih tražbina (the Workers' Claims Insurance Agency) would pay unpaid rent and bills up to €10,000 in total if the lease is notarial or solemnisedSolemnisation (solemnizacija)simplifiedA notary confirms a contract: checks it, explains the consequences and gives it the force of a notarial deed. With an enforcement clause it becomes an enforcement title.Source: Zakon o javnom bilježništvu (NN 78/93 … 57/22), čl. 54. i 59., checked 19 Oct 2026More in the glossary and filed with the Agency, the landlord pays a yearly membership fee, the tenant's solemnised blank promissory note (bjanko zadužnica) for up to €10,000 has been lodged, the tenant has moved out or evictionMoving out and eviction (iseljenje)simplifiedThe tenant leaving the flat at the end of a lease. If they don't leave, the landlord can sue, and a court officer carries out the eviction, never the landlord.Source: Ovršni zakon (NN 112/12 … 06/24), čl. 255.–258., checked 24 Oct 2026More in the glossary has started, and the two aren't close relatives. The state would then take over the claim against the tenant (Arts. 37, 38 and 43).

For state-owned flats, rent would follow a formula: floor area times a base of at least €7.725 per m², times coefficients, with a location coefficient of 1.25 for Zagreb. It would be phased in (50% in 2027, 75% in 2028, 100% in 2029), with a ceiling tied to 30% of household income (Arts. 33 and 34). The Ministry's slides put a 50 m² state flat in Zagreb at about €460 a month at the full rate.

The draft also covers non-profit leases let by public bodies through public calls (Art. 32) and purchase rules for the roughly 4,000 protected tenantsProtected tenant (zaštićeni najmoprimac)simplifiedA tenant who lives in a flat on the basis of a former tenancy right and paid a protected rent. For private flats a transitional protected lease has applied since 1 January 2025.Source: Zakon o načinu izvršenja presuda ESLJP u skupini predmeta Statileo (NN 36/2024), čl. 4., 17., 18. i 20., checked 19 Oct 2026More in the glossary in publicly owned flats (Arts. 48–54). The current Housing Lease Act would be repealed (Art. 60).

What the draft wouldn't do

• It wouldn't cap market rents. The starting rent would still be set freely (Art. 31).
• The €7.725 per m² figure is the minimum base for state-owned flats only. It isn't a market price or a cap on private rents (Art. 33).
• The cap on rises would follow DZS residential property prices (Art. 31), although the draft's own reasoning on that article speaks of “the previous year's inflation rate”. The draft doesn't say which DZS figure would apply.
• The state guarantee would be voluntary and only for individual landlords, so it wouldn't protect tenants (Arts. 37 and 38).
• It wouldn't create housing courts. The impact assessment says an OECD recommendation for special housing courts was dropped as too costly.

What you can do now

Until a new law is passed, your lease follows the current rules.

• Sign a written lease under the current law. Our lease checklist covers what to check.
• At move-in, make a record with meter readings, an inventory and dated photos of every room. The current Act already requires a condition record (Art. 12), and the draft would make photos mandatory.
• Notice, depositsDeposit (polog)simplifiedMoney the tenant pays as security for unpaid rent, bills or damage, and gets back at the end of the lease. The lease sets the amount and when it's returned.Source: Zakon o najmu stanova (NN 91/96 … 105/20), čl. 3. i 17., checked 19 Oct 2026More in the glossary and your rights during the lease follow the current law: see ending a lease, deposits and tenant rights.
• As we read the draft, a lease signed now that runs into 2027 would be covered by the cap on rent rises if the law passes as drafted.
• A lease can already be solemnisedSolemnisation (solemnizacija)simplifiedA notary confirms a contract: checks it, explains the consequences and gives it the force of a notarial deed. With an enforcement clause it becomes an enforcement title.Source: Zakon o javnom bilježništvu (NN 78/93 … 57/22), čl. 54. i 59., checked 19 Oct 2026More in the glossary by a notary. With a clause allowing direct enforcement it has the force of an enforceable notarial deed (Notaries Act, Arts. 54 and 59), so tenants should read that clause before signing.

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