The historic Casa Pereira da Conceição store is located on Rua Augusta, in Lisbon
Although the court of first instance ruled in favor of the store, the Lisbon Court of Appeal ruled in favor of the landlord.
The Lisbon Court of Appeal ruled in favor of the landlord of the historic Casa Pereira da Conceição, on Rua Augusta, allowing the updating of the monthly income from 331 euros to 10 thousand euros and ordering eviction from the establishment starting next summer. The decision revokes the first instance sentence that had protected the store, classified as “Store with History”, the rise in income.
The process opposes Europombalina – Sociedade Imobiliária, Lda., owner of the fraction, to the company Valor do Tempo, current owner of Casa Pereira da Conceição, founded in 1933. In July 2024, after 10 years of income freezethe landlord communicated his intention to transfer the contract to the New Urban Lease Regime (NRAU), proposing a monthly rent of 10 thousand euros and a new five-year contract, automatically renewable for periods of one year.
The tenants objected, invoking Law No. 42/2017, which establishes a protection regime for establishments recognized as historical and cultural interestarguing that the income update could only occur after December 31, 2027. The court of first instance accepted this interpretation, considering that the 10-year protection period should run from the entry into force of that diploma, in 2017, states the .
However, the Lisbon Relationship understood it differently. In the ruling of January 27th, the judges maintain that the tenant You can only invoke it once one of the legal grounds for postponing the transition to the NRAU. In this case, the store had already benefited, in 2014, from an exceptional regime for being considered a “micro-entity”, which allowed it to freeze income for 10 years, between 2014 and 2024.
According to the court, the grounds of opposition provided for in the law are alternative and produce “a unique and unrepeatable legal effect”, and it is not possible to accumulate successive deferrals. After a period of 10 years after the first invocation, the exception regime is extinguished and the general rules of the NRAU apply.
The decision also highlights that, as the tenants did not present a counter-offer to the value indicated by the landlord, the landlord’s will prevails, as the proposed rent is not subject to a legal ceiling. As a result, the establishment was evicted.
