You lent someone a home rent-free: when can you ask for it back?

Providing a home without payment for temporary use, with an obligation to return it, may constitute a loan for use under Article 243 of the Obligations and Contracts Act. This differs from a registered real right of use and from a lease.

What was actually agreed

Duration may be a specified date, while use may have a defined purpose, such as an agreed period of study. Messages and conduct may help prove terms where no written agreement exists. Paying electricity and water does not by itself establish a rent payment.

Under Article 249, the property is returned when the term expires or the agreed use ends. Where time or purpose is unspecified, the Act allows the lender to request return. Early return during an agreed term requires specific grounds, including unforeseen urgent need or breach of the borrower’s obligations; a change of mind is not a universal ground.

Expenses do not create ownership

The borrower must care for the property, use it according to the agreement and not pass its use to others contrary to the regime. Ordinary maintenance and use costs fall on the borrower, while necessary urgent extraordinary expenditure follows a separate rule. Renovating does not automatically make the occupant an owner or lifetime user.

Request return in a provable way and arrange handover, keys, belongings and bills. If refused, choose the available judicial remedy. Unilaterally removing belongings or changing locks during a dispute is not a substitute.