SANTO DOMINGO - Article 43, concerning service contracts in the draft law on real estate rentals and evictions, states that companies providing water, electricity, communications or cable services may not refuse or deny requests to open new contracts under the pretext of overdue bills or contracts not canceled by previous owners or tenants.
“Given that the responsibility for compliance with the service contracts described in this article falls exclusively on the persons who sign them and not on the property where they are supplied,” states the project approved in its first reading in the Chamber of Deputies last May.
In a proposed amendment sent to the Chamber of Deputies, the Ministry of Housing, Habitat and Buildings (MIVHED) suggests, however, that homeowners charge a bond to guarantee payment of bills to public service companies such as electricity, water or cable TV.
The document delivered by the Ministry states that the owner "may refrain" from fulfilling the obligations of the contract until he receives the deposit to pay for the services and stipulates that the contract will be automatically terminated if the tenant does not pay the deposit within a period of fifteen days from the time of signing the contract.
In contrast, the bill from the deputies establishes that it is the responsibility of the companies providing these services to pursue payment from the person who signed the contract, without intending to transfer or demand that responsibility from new applicants.
Among the changes that MIVHED wants to integrate into the bill, it seeks that the payment of services
be assumed exclusively by the tenant, but when there are constant delays in the payments of any of these services, the affected company may demand from the owner the deposit that he received when the rental contract was signed.
In its latest suggestion on the subject, MIVHED proposes that companies providing communication, water and electricity services cannot deny requests for new contracts under the pretext of overdue bills from previous tenants or owners.
Regarding the delivery of receipts for service cancellations, the legislative piece states that at the end of the rental contract, the tenant will deliver to the owner, or their representative, copies of the receipts for the cancellation of the contracts for water, electricity, communications and cable TV services linked to the rented property.
