Lease registration in Mexico City: the 30-day duty

What the law says

The text added to article 2448 F reads, in substance: a digital register of lease contracts is to be set up, “de autorización inmediata, a cargo del Gobierno de la Ciudad de México”, and for that purpose “el arrendador deberá registrar sus contratos en un plazo no mayor a 30 días de celebrado el contrato”. The duty falls on the landlord, not the tenant. A press release from the city’s Congress dated 22 August 2024 describes the same rule in the same terms.

Three points follow from the wording:

• Which leases. The article belongs to the chapter on urban buildings let as homes, so the duty concerns residential leases. The article does not extend it to other types of lease.
• Who registers. “El arrendador”. The tenant has no duty under this article, but a tenant has an interest in knowing that registration has been done.
• Deadline. 30 days counted from the date the contract is entered into (“celebrado”).

Existing leases

The decree’s transitional provisions dealt with leases already running on 29 August 2024. The register was to be put into operation, under a mechanism set by the city government, within 30 days after the decree entered into force. Contracts already in force “deberán registrarse por el arrendador en un plazo no mayor a 90 días” after that. Those dates have passed. I did not read any official page confirming when the register actually started operating, nor the instructions for using it, so I do not state a date or a portal address.

Confidentiality and misuse

The code says the register follows the city’s transparency and personal data laws and that, “por ningún motivo, salvo por resolución judicial”, it may be made public or disclosed. Civil servants in charge who misuse the data or do not take due care of it face criminal and administrative penalties. For a tenant this means the lease data is not published; it does not mean the landlord can keep it from the court.

What the law does not say

In the text read, there is:

• no stated penalty for a landlord who does not register in time;
• no statement that an unregistered lease is invalid. Article 2448 F separately says that a lease must be in writing and that the lack of written form is “imputed to the landlord”. The registration sentence carries no such consequence in the text read;
• no fee for registering.

On these three points the code is silent in the version I read, and I do not fill the gap. The Mexico City government, which runs the register, is the authority to ask. If you are a tenant, you can ask your landlord for proof of registration, but I found no text that obliges the landlord to give one.

Practical points for a lease signed in Mexico City

1. Make sure the contract is in writing and has the content listed in art. 2448 F; see renting a home in Mexico City.
2. Note the signing date; the 30 days run from it.
3. Ask the landlord, or the person managing the property for the landlord, how and when the registration will be done.
4. Keep the lease and the rent receipts. The code requires a receipt for each month and treats rent as paid after more than three months without receipts, unless the landlord had formally demanded it.

Which professional to consult

A real estate lawyer (real estate lawyer) can tell you how the register works in practice and whether the lease is in order. A property manager acting for an absent landlord should confirm in writing that registration was done.