In its last meeting, the Council of Ministers decided to hold meetings with a number of parliamentary committees, to reach a legal formula that restores the balance between the owner and the tenant, and includes a solution to the problem, while allowing a transitional period for the tenants to reconcile their conditions, and taking into account the social groups most in need in the law.
The old rent file represents “a headache for a large group of landlords and tenants in Egypt, and it must be put to an end in accordance with the conditions of Egyptian society,” according to the hadith of Al-Hussein Hassan, head of the African Federation of Slums and Sustainable Development Expert, with Sky News Arabia. .
3 million properties
Hassan continued, “The total of the old rental properties amounted to 3 million properties, and 88% of these properties are taken in residential and others commercial, and a large part of them are not suitable for housing due to the long life spans and must be removed.”
He stressed that “the new law was established to control the relationship between the owner and the tenant regarding this file, and to resolve disputes that have persisted for decades between the two parties, as the law worked to fill the legislative void after inheriting more than 13 laws for decades, urging landlords to reduce the rental value.”
Owners but poor
The sustainable development expert added: “The corridors of the courts are full of issues related to old rents, and there is great pressure on the Egyptian judiciary in such cases, and there is a clear injustice as there are tenants who stay in housing units in pounds, and the owners are begging and do not find their livelihood and they have apartments with high quality. The rent value is thousands of pounds per month.
And Hassan added, in his interview with “Sky News Arabia”, that “companies, for example, and bodies located in the downtown areas, Zamalek and others, their monthly rent ranges between one and a half and three pounds, and the new amendments included placing a financial value commensurate with the conditions of the tenant within a reasonable framework.”
What does the new law stipulate?
The new law, which is expected to come out in the coming period, stipulates the eviction of premises rented to legal persons within a period not exceeding 5 years from the date of law enforcement, in addition to that the third article stipulates setting the rental value five times the legal value in force, and it increases annually and periodically by 15% in order to achieve Balance between the two parties to the rental relationship.
And about what will happen after 5 years of applying the law, the owner or the lessor has the right on the day following the expiry of this period, and with the tenant’s abstention from that, to ask the judge of temporary matters in the court in whose district the property is to be expelled, without eviction of the right to compensation if He had a requirement.
Everyone is benefited
At the same time, Mostafa Abu Zeid, director of the Egypt Center for Strategic and Economic Studies, says, “The currently proposed rent amendments, including their financial values, are logical for society at the present time, benefit everyone and achieve the principle of justice in payment, in addition to collecting a real estate tax commensurate with the value of the unit. leased”.
And Abu Zaid continued, in his interview with “Sky News Arabia”, that “the consolidation of the rental culture between the owner and the tenant has a great impact, to prevent wasting the rental value, and to determine a financial value that fits the location in which the housing is located, and in the event the tenant refuses, the property owner has the right to Acquiring his property and benefiting from his wasted real estate wealth.
The Director of Egypt for Strategic and Economic Studies noted that “this matter will bring great benefit to the state for the gains it will achieve, as with the rental value increases, the real estate tax proceeds will rise, and there will be more turnover of real estate wealth in proportion to the rental value of the property.”
The economic expert pointed out that “there must be a transitional period, and the legislative impact of the new law must be measured by those in charge of it, and in the event that any new problems arise on the scene that were not taken into account, they will be addressed, so any decision is applied, whether at the economic, social or other level. It is necessary to follow it up and find out whether there has been a deviation from the path set for it or not, and this is the role of the concerned authorities and those responsible for the work of the law and its follow-up.”
