The Minister of Territorial Policy and Civil Service, Miquel Iceta, hinted this Wednesday in Congress that the Government will appeal the rental law of Catalonia that regulates prices, responding to a Bildu MP, who moved the question from the Tenants’ Union, after days of rumors. “Will the government suspend the rental law?” The minister’s response was not hopeful for advocates of regulation: “If an autonomous law violates the jurisdictional framework, I have a political, moral and legal obligation to file this appeal. No I can look the other way. ” The decision has already been taken with which the Government will appeal to the Constitutional Court (TC) and ask for the suspension of the law of Catalonia that limits rent , which has been in force since last September. The measure will in principle be approved by the next Council of Ministers, which will be held on Tuesday next week.
According to sources in the Executive, the decision was taken after unsuccessfully trying to agree with the Government on changes to the Catalan rental law to bring it into line with the Magna Carta. The challenge by the Executive comes after the TC admitted the PP’s appeal of unconstitutionality last January. In parallel, the coalition of the PSOE and Podemos has been trying unsuccessfully for months to reach an agreement between both parties to approve a state rule on rents, with the purists pushing for it to contain a higher level of protection for tenants.
The Tenants’ Union against the Government, which will appeal the rent law that regulates prices in Catalonia
Members of the Sindicat de Llogateres de Catalunya have traveled to Madrid this Thursday to defend the Catalan rent law in Congress, promoted by social movements to prevent the Government resort to the rent law that regulates prices in Catalonia. Alongside them were representatives of several of the Executive’s parliamentary partners: ERC, Commitment and More Country. Also from Podemos, which is against the appeal, thus showing the very different views on rent within the coalition. “We cannot allow the government to resort to the law regulating rents in Catalonia, which has cost many people sweat and tears. That protects the lives and future of thousands of people, “said Jaime Palomera, union spokesman.
The Tenants’ Union also insists that the decision comes after having verified with official data that Catalan law is working. “Prices are falling globally in the municipalities in which the regulation is in force, and are increasing in the unregulated ones,” they said, stressing that the market has not been paralyzed, as they complained would happen from of the real estate sector. “There have been record figures of new contracts”, they conclude, citing data from the quarterly balance sheet published by the Institut Català del Sòl (Incasòl).
What does the Catalan rental law say?
The Catalan law now in check came into force last September, after the approval in Parliament of the initiative promoted by the Tenants’ Union. It is not a law which applies to the whole territory, but only to the municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants and fixes that the rental price cannot increase with respect to the previous contract and that if a home was priced above the average rent in the area, the new contract will not be able to exceed the Generalitat’s price index.
The rule, still in force, also states that households in the affected localities that are rented for the first time must comply with the index set by the administration for each area, but the new work is exempt “to encourage the construction of sheltered housing.” The Catalan rental law also provides for penalties of 3,000 to 90,000 euros in case of non-compliance.
The Generalitat offers a public consultation indicator to find out an estimate of the average price per square meter of rent of a home according to the area and the characteristics of the property for to set the minimum price and the maximum price. The amount of the home is calculated according to general criteria such as location, but it is also limited to more specific criteria such as the state of maintenance, if it has a lift, if there is parking or if the home is furnished.
For more information you can visit the College of Property Managers website of Barcelona-Lleida.
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Source: https://www.elperiodico.com/es/
