Short answer. Restoration is the rule, but it is not automatic and it is not unconditional. Article 1190 requires the parties to return to each other what they have received once a resolutory condition is fulfilled. Your deposit comes back less what it was agreed to answer for — unpaid rent, damage, utilities.

What the law says

When the conditions have for their purpose the extinguishment of an obligation to give, the parties, upon the fulfillment of said conditions, shall return to each other what they have received.

Civil Code, Article 1190 — Effect of a Resolutory Condition Fulfilled. Read the full provision →

What a resolutory condition does

Article 1190 provides that When the conditions have for their purpose the extinguishment of an obligation to give, the parties, upon the fulfillment of said conditions, shall return to each other what they have received. A resolutory condition works backwards: under Article 1181 it extinguishes rights already acquired when the event occurs. So the clause ending your lease on a breach is not a penalty clause; it is the switch that undoes the arrangement. Article 1179 confirms that an obligation with a resolutory condition is demandable at once — the lease was fully effective until the event, which is why past rent is not refundable.

Why the rent stays and the deposit moves

Mutual restitution sounds like everyone hands everything back, but a lease is consumed as it runs. You had the use of the property for the months you occupied it and cannot return that, so the rent paid for those months answers for what you received. The deposit is different in kind. It was never payment; it was money held as security for specific things — unpaid rent, utilities left running, damage beyond ordinary wear. When the lease ends, what the deposit was held against is either owed or it is not, and the balance is yours. That is the accounting the landlord has to produce.

What can be charged against it

Article 1665 sets the standard for the property itself: the lessee returns the thing leased as he received it, save what has been lost or impaired by the lapse of time, by ordinary wear and tear, or from an inevitable cause. Repainting after normal use and fading fixtures are on that side of the line; a broken door or a hole cut for an air-conditioner is not. Article 1666 matters where there was no move-in condition report — the law then presumes the lessee received the property in good condition unless there is proof to the contrary, which is why photographs taken on day one are worth so much.

Asking for it back

Write, do not call. Ask for a written statement of account showing every deduction with its supporting receipt or quotation, and give the address for the refund. If a deduction is for damage, ask which item and what it cost to repair; a lump-sum forfeiture with no breakdown is not an accounting. Note also that automatic termination clauses are read strictly — the landlord has to show that the event you were said to have triggered actually happened. Keep the lease, the move-in and move-out photographs, and the receipt for the deposit itself.

Cases citing this provision

These Supreme Court decisions cite the provision above. We list them so you can read them yourself; the summaries of what each decided are not ours to give.

Related provisions

Note. Statute text quoted on this page is reproduced from the official enactment and is linked to the full provision. The explanation around it is general legal information from Vivas & Nobles Law Office, not legal advice. Whether it applies to your situation depends on facts only a lawyer reviewing them can assess.