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Comprehensive practical guides for living in Portugal. Taxes (IFICI/NHR), visas (D7, D8, Golden Visa), healthcare (SNS + private), housing, banking, bureaucracy, and daily life essentials for expats.

The bronze sculpture A Justiça by Leopoldo de Almeida outside the Palácio da Justiça in Lisbon, showing a figure restraining two rearing horses.

When a Debt in Portugal Expires in 2026: A Practical Guide to Prescrição, the Six Months on a Water Bill, the Two Years on a Traffic Fine, the Eight on Tax, the Twenty That Follow a Judgment, and the Sentence That Restarts the Clock

Portuguese law does not delete an old debt; it gives you a right to refuse it, and only if you say so. Article 303 of the Civil Code stops a court raising prescrição for you, and one written acknowledgement, or one part payment, resets the whole clock.
The Portugal Brief
A street corner in Porto: a blue and white azulejo-tiled building with iron balconies and shopfronts at street level, on a cobbled square.

Right of First Refusal in Portugal in 2026: A Practical Guide to the Direito de Preferência, the Thirty Days a Tenant Gets and the Eight Everyone Else Gets, the 15 Euro Notice That Clears the State, and the Six Months to Sue

A tenant of more than two years, a co-owner, a neighbouring farmer and the municipality can each take a Portuguese property off the buyer who agreed to it, at the price the buyer agreed. Here is who holds the right, in what order, and how long each one has.
The Portugal Brief