By Yamalie Rosario
El Inmobiliario
SANTO DOMINGO. Achieving a balance between the rights of tenants versus property owners is one of the main dilemmas facing the General Law on Real Estate Rentals and Evictions in the National Congress.
The piece, which has been under study for about 20 years, would repeal Law No. 4314, of October 22, 1955, and Law No. 17-88, of February 5, 1988, and Decree No. 4807. The first law cited and the presidential opinion date from the Trujillo era.
The project aims to reform outdated regulations to stimulate domestic and foreign private investment in real estate development projects intended for rental. It seeks to have the government develop policies that facilitate the supply of housing units and, consequently, lower rental costs.
Although the congressmen propose among the points considered for the law that it "must protect the rights of tenants by prohibiting discriminatory and onerous practices, resulting from unilateral management and clauses imposed by the owners," it seems that this and the mistreatment received by property owners persist among the congressional obstacles.
Judge and jury?
The interest in the latter rights was evident during the plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies on May 24, when that body declared the bill urgent, approved it in its first reading, and sent it back to committee for the purpose of holding public hearings.
On that occasion, the deputy of the People's Force, Hamlet Melo, admitted that he as a lawyer, real estate agent and businessman in the Verón-Punta Cana tourist area, sees daily how tenants "offend, outrage, mistreat the owners" and the lawyers.
The disagreements
In an interview with El Inmobiliario about the bill, Luis Henríquez Beato, a member of the PLD party and part of the special commission that studied the bill for about eight months, admitted that the reason the initiative failed to become law is because disagreements persist.
“The tenant’s housing rights and the landlords’ property rights. The balance of these two rights is a source of great jealousy among legislators who defend one side or the other,” he asserted.
Among the issues without consensus, he cited the selection of which institution will handle the deposits that tenants must make to rent a home, because some deputies propose that it be the Ministry of Housing, Habitat and Buildings (Mivhed), and others, that it continue to be the Agricultural Bank.
However, the bills submitted and the favorable report from that special commission, in the last legislature, maintained the proposal that the Reserve Bank should have that role.
Henríquez Beato highlighted the importance of the project because the current legislation is obsolete and, furthermore, it must include constitutional reforms related to fundamental rights.
He stated that this initiative seeks to strengthen the rights of property owners so that they can exhaust agile processes in the recovery of their homes, guarantees the safety of tenants, establishes controls on rental prices and makes the issue of deposits transparent.
The possibility of taking commercial leases into account to make the project more comprehensive has been considered by legislators.
Widespread objections
There are objections to the bill from various sectors, and some are suggesting it be strengthened. This has been expressed by members of the Association of Real Estate Agents and Companies (AEI), the Association of Housing Builders and Developers (Acroprovi), the Institutionalism and Justice Foundation (Finjus), and others.
Reyna Echenique, secretary of the Board of Directors of the AEI, stated that congressmen must provide the country with a new legal framework that takes into account and respects the property rights of owners and the usage rights of tenants.
The lawyer and real estate broker hopes that in this ordinary legislative session, which began on August 16, a more equitable and transparent law will be achieved, one that will boost real estate investments and the economy.
Reyna Echenique and Congressman Eugenio Cedeño.
Observations
On June 28, the special committee of the Chamber of Deputies that studied the bill received comments from about 20 sectors during public hearings.
Acoprovi, represented by its president Annerys Meléndez, lamented during that hearing that there is little real estate investment due to the lack of existing legal guarantees.
On stage, the bill's proponent, Alfredo Pacheco, president of the Chamber of Deputies, spoke along those lines, admitting: “Housing rentals in the Dominican Republic are currently a disaster.” He emphasized that his bill would establish a balance between the rights of landlords and tenants.
The Institutionalism and Justice Foundation (Finjus) understood that the bill should be improved because by establishing bureaucratic protocols it believes it would affect the productive sector and harm investment.
These suggestions came after Congressman Eugenio Cedeño, president of the special commission that studied the bill, complained to the plenary of the Chamber of Deputies that, despite the commissioners inviting the Supreme Court of Justice, the Attorney General's Office and Acoprovi, these sectors never appeared to present their suggestions.
The details
The proposed rental law stipulates that tenants only pay a one-month deposit, which must be deposited in the Banco de Reservas de la República Dominicana (Reserve Bank of the Dominican Republic). Currently, the Banco Agrícola (Agricultural Bank) is used for this purpose.
The initiative prohibits discrimination based on having children, being a foreigner, belonging to an ethnic group, sex, creed, social status or other causes (article 31) and proposes that disputes over the deposit be resolved in the first instance in the justices of the peace of the jurisdiction to which the property corresponds (article 22).
20 years of setbacks
The General Project on Real Estate Rentals and Evictions faces obstacles to being turned into law by the Legislative Branch for a period of 20 years.
The current initiative expired in the last ordinary legislature and was reintroduced by its proponent on August 21, 2023.
The Legislative Information System (SIL) of the Chamber of Deputies lists three bills with the same objectives that have expired.
One of those pieces was submitted in the previous legislative period on December 13, 2018 by the then deputies of the PLD Henry Merán and Demóstenes Martínez and by Alfredo Pacheco, the current proponent.
Former congressman Merán recalled in an interview he gave in January 2020 that the project had been declared of high national interest at the time. He stated that the law was a constitutional mandate.
"Unfortunately, with this bill, the deputies and senators have not agreed in time or space to turn this very important bill on tenancy, rentals and evictions into law," complained the former congressman, and three years later the same obstacles persist.
