“Home, sweet home”: Protection of the family home and contract law

Maria Raquel Guimarães

Keywords

Lease; sales contract; family protection; family home; right to housing; tenancy.

Abstract

The place of one’s residence and, in particular, the family home, is not legally irrelevant and there are several implications of adopting a certain place of residence. In the Portuguese Constitutional Law the right to housing is a fundamental right that conforms the rule make action when defining contract laws and the limits of freedom of contract. In this text we intend to focus on the main repercussions of the ties that link a family to its home on contract law, especially concerning sales and lease contracts.