The first evictions under Greece’s new legal framework for the recovery of rented property are not expected to take place before early summer, according to legal professionals familiar with the process. Although public debate in recent months has raised fears of “fast-track” or mass evictions, the structure of the new procedure includes mandatory timelines that effectively rule out any immediate removal of tenants.
The reform, which came into force on January 1, introduces a faster mechanism for issuing an order for the return of a leased property when a rental contract has expired. This procedure runs alongside the traditional court action for repossession, which is often lengthy and can take years to conclude. While the new route is designed to reduce delays, it does not eliminate tenant protections or compress their legal rights.
A key feature of the framework is the obligation placed on landlords to first serve an extrajudicial notice to the tenant. Through this formal notice, delivered by a court bailiff, the landlord declares that the lease will not be renewed and requests the return of the property. From the moment the notice is served, a minimum period of three months must pass during which the tenant remains fully entitled to occupy the property. No legal action can proceed before this deadline expires.
Only after this three-month period, and if the tenant has not vacated the property, may the landlord apply for an order for recovery. The application is not reviewed by a judge at this stage but by a certified lawyer appointed at random by the registry of the competent court, rather than selected by the landlord. This lawyer is tasked with checking whether all legal requirements have been met and whether the documentation submitted is complete and lawful.
Even when such an order is issued, enforcement does not follow immediately. Greek law provides for an additional two-month waiting period after the order has been formally served on the tenant. During this time, the tenant has the right to challenge the order and to request interim judicial protection, provided there are substantiated legal grounds.
When all these procedural steps are taken into account, legal experts estimate that even in the simplest cases—where no objections are raised and no appeals are filed—it takes at least six months for a case to reach the enforcement stage. As a result, cases initiated after January 1 cannot realistically lead to evictions before late June or early July.
