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Calls for extending rent law
Owners of affordable housing units have begun issuing notices to their tenants to vacate the premises as the rent law, which has frozen rents since early 2008, is due for expiry on February 14.
But lawyers say no landlord can drive a tenant out if he has been paying the rent on time without seeking an order from a competent court or the municipal rent dispute resolution committee.
Although houses are available in abundance and rents are coming down, affordable housing (especially apartments and old villas commanding rents between QR3,000 and QR5,000) is still in short supply, real estate market sources say.
“The landlords of such properties would now want to offer the units on higher rent, so they would like the existing tenants to leave,” said a property market source.
But lawyer Yusuf Zaman said landlords could not simply ask a tenant to vacate. “They have to go to court or the rent dispute resolution committee to seek an eviction order.”
According to lawyer Mohsin Thiyab Al Suwaidi, the government should intervene and extend the current rent law, which was promulgated vide a Cabinet Decision (No. 9 of 2008) whose validity expires on February 14.
A lot of people were demanding that the rent law be extended by the Advisory Council to keep the rents of housing as well as commercial units under check, he said.
“The recommendations of the Advisory Council wouldn’t help much. It is the government which should intervene and extend the law for at least five years or rents would skyrocket again as was the case two years ago,” cautioned Al Suwaidi.
He said that while it was true that housing supplies had eased, low-rent, affordable units were still in short supply. So it would be natural for the owners of these units to raise the rents once the current rent law expires.
The rents of large apartments and villas whose tenancy contracts were signed after 2005 were also frozen by the current law, and can be similarly hiked.
“This makes it imperative for the government to act and extend the law. I would rather suggest that a new and extensive law be enforced whereby rents are fixed according to the location, quality and area of an apartment or villa per square metre, which is the case with advanced countries,” said Al Suwaidi.
The situation is particularly alarming as regards commercial properties such as shops because their shortage is acute. If the rent law is not extended the rents of these properties would soar and this would lead to inflationary pressures again, warned Al Suwaidi
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&month=January2010&file=Local_News2010013021327.xml |
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