Lease renewal in Brazil: your window to file.
Brazilian law gives a commercial tenant a narrow window to compel renewal: it opens twelve months before the lease ends and closes six months before it. Enter your lease dates and the tool returns when the window opens, when it closes, how many days are left, and whether the time requirements of art. 51 are met.
How to fill in the earlier terms: count only leases that were in writing and uninterrupted — a gap between them breaks the chain and the count restarts. A 24-month lease followed with no gap by a 36-month lease adds up to 60 months.
Once the date is clear, the next step
is assembling the art. 71 documents.
A renewal claim must be fully documented from day one — the lease, proof that rent and charges are paid, the guarantor's details and the proposed rent. Send your simulation on WhatsApp for an initial review. To place renewal within the wider set of commercial leasing rules, see our guide to Brazilian tenancy law.
The formula, the article and the review date.
opens = end − 12 months and closes = end − 6 months. The days remaining come from the difference between today's date, read from your device clock, and each of those two dates.
The calculation comes from art. 51, § 5, of Law 8,245/91: "Do direito a renovação decai aquele que não propuser a ação no interregno de um ano, no máximo, até seis meses, no mínimo, anteriores à data da finalização do prazo do contrato em vigor" — the right to renewal is forfeited by anyone who does not file within the interval of one year at most, six months at least, before the date on which the term of the lease in force ends. The reference point is always the end of the lease in force — not the date it was signed, nor the date the landlord served notice.
The three time requirements the tool checks
The caput of art. 51 makes the right to renewal conditional on three requirements being met cumulatively. Item I requires the lease to be in writing and for a fixed term — the calculator records your answer, since that is read off the document. Item II requires that the minimum term of the lease, or the sum of the uninterrupted terms of the written leases, be five years: the tool adds the term of the current lease, counted in months from the start date to the day after the end date, to the earlier terms you enter, and checks whether the total reaches 60 months. Item III requires the tenant to have run its business, in the same line of trade, for a minimum uninterrupted period of three years: the tool counts the months from the date use began to today, checking whether it reaches 36 months.
Why the period is one of forfeiture, and what that changes
The choice of verb in § 5 is deliberate: a tenant who does not file within the window forfeits the right. Forfeiture periods do not stop running while the parties negotiate — an offer under consideration, a notice already served or a meeting in the diary do not pause the clock. The count therefore ends at filing, when the claim is distributed to a court, not when the client engages a lawyer.
Who else can use the renewal action
The paragraphs of art. 51 extend the right beyond the caput. Paragraph 1 allows it to be exercised by assignees or successors of the lease and, where the whole property is sublet, gives the right to the subtenant. Paragraph 2 covers the case where the lease authorises the tenant to use the premises for a company it belongs to and the going concern comes to belong to that company: the right may be exercised by the tenant or the company. Paragraph 3 subrogates the surviving partner where the company is dissolved by the death of a partner, provided the same line of business continues. Paragraph 4 extends the action to duly incorporated industrial companies and for-profit civil-law companies.
Common questions on the renewal deadline.
What is the deadline to file a commercial lease renewal action in Brazil?
Article 51, § 5, of Law 8,245/91 provides that the right to renewal is forfeited by anyone who does not file the action within the interval of one year at most, and six months at least, before the date on which the term of the lease in force ends. In practice the window opens twelve months before the end of the lease and closes six months before it. What counts is the filing date, not the date the tenant contacts a lawyer.
I missed the window between twelve and six months. Can the lease still be renewed?
The statute uses the verb decai — forfeiture. Once the period has passed, the right to compel renewal in court is extinguished, and a forfeiture period is not suspended or interrupted by negotiations. What remains available is renewal by agreement, which depends on the landlord consenting, or a new lease on new terms. Any specific case still needs review by a lawyer.
My current lease runs for three years. Can earlier leases be added to reach five years?
Article 51, II, expressly allows the sum: the requirement is that the minimum term of the lease to be renewed, or the sum of the uninterrupted terms of the written leases, be five years. The earlier leases must be in writing and the chain must have no gap — without them, a stand-alone thirty-six-month lease does not meet the requirement.
Can the landlord refuse renewal even when every requirement is met?
Yes, in the situations set out in the statute. Article 52 releases the landlord from renewing when, by order of a public authority, works amounting to a radical transformation of the property must be carried out, or when the property is to be used by the landlord or for the transfer of a going concern. Article 72 limits the landlord's defence, as to matters of fact, to defined grounds — among them the tenant's failure to meet the requirements and a better offer from a third party.
How much does a lease renewal action cost?
The cost has two independent blocks. The first is court expenses — filing fees calculated on the value assigned to the claim, plus certificates and any expert appraisal of the market rent. The second is legal fees, set case by case according to complexity and the size of the lease, and presented in writing after the documents are reviewed. This calculator estimates neither: it works only with dates.
Do you assist clients outside São Paulo?
Law 8,245/91 is federal and applies throughout Brazil, so the calculation on this page works for any state. The firm is based on Avenida Paulista and works with clients elsewhere remotely, by video call and with digital documents; in distant jurisdictions the work may involve a local correspondent lawyer. Initial screening and the fee proposal are handled the same way.
