Committee for solving rental disputes and speedy action Thursday, 13 January 2011 02:04

There is no doubt that housing is one of the most important needs of human beings. The stability of the relationship between the landlord and the tenant is a basic need for the sense of security of the tenants and for the stability of the real estate market. The government has put in place enough laws and the necessary mechanism to ensure this stability.

The housing crisis which peaked in 2007 led to high rents in an unusual way and resulted in many negative aspects including the phenomenon of the division of housing units and the accommodation of more than one person in one room as this resulted in increasing number of cases in the courts between landlords and tenants and the length of litigation procedures and delay in issuance of the verdict. Therefore, the legislature intervened to resolve the matters and reorganize them in line with the current reality and introduced the necessary solutions to evaluate the rental relationship and restore the balance between the supply and demand in the real estate market.

Therefore, His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the Emir issued the Law No. 4 / 2008 concerning the lease of real estate. The provisions of this law are applied to the places and parts of premises prepared for residential purposes and places and parts of premises prepared for commercial or industrial purposes and the furnished residential units of which the duration of lease is more than one month.

The law introduced some exceptional and temporary provisions that helped in reducing the rental value of real estate units and brought about a significant balance in the relationship between landlords and tenants. The most important temporary provision prevents the leaser from increasing the rental value for the contracts in force or that will be concluded as of the date of this law 14 / 02/2010, except in accordance with the rules and the periods and within the limits of the ratios that were issued by a resolution of the Council of Ministers No. 9 of 2008 on the rules, periods and rates of increase in rental value.

The second exception is the extension of tenancy contracts subject to the provisions of the rent act for two years that starts on 15/02/2008 and ends on 14/02/2010 unless the contract includes a longer period, or the tenant doesn’t want to renew the same. These provisions have been applied for a period of two years to the premises and the parts of premises prepared for housing. The tenancy agreements of premises and parts of premises intended for commercial or industrial purposes have been extended according to this resolution until 14/02/2011.

The law established some offices to register the tenancy agreements under the supervision of the Ministry of Municipality and the law obligates the landlord to register the agreement in the office under the provision 3, which provides that:

“The tenancy agreements subject to the provisions of this law entered into in writing and must include the basic elements of the contract as well as these contracts must be registered at the concerned registration office. The provision concerned with the registration shall apply to the existing contracts and the leaser will take the necessary action to get the contract registered during the year from the date of this law. The new tenancy agreements must be registered in the office within 30 days from the date of its conclusion. The registration fees will be increased by (25%) of the fee for the first month, (50%) of the fee for the second month, (75%) of the fee for the third month and (100%) of the fees for more than three months if the landlord didn’t get the agreement registered during the said period.

No application regarding the tenancy agreement submitted by the landlord before the Commission or the judiciary will be heard unless the contract is registered at the office and apart from that he will be asked to prove rental relationship of the tenancy agreement prior to 15/02/2008. The tenant can establish the fact of lease and all terms of the contract with all methods of proof.

The goal of the registry is a count of all rental units until the ministry has the database about the number of rental units and the prevailing prices and that will represent a fundamental rule and reliable statistics in the future at the time of deciding this matter.

The law introduced a rental dispute settlement committee whereas in the ministry one or more committees emerge that is called ‘rental dispute settlement committee’ and headed by a judge of the rank of chief of court of First Instance appointed by the Chairman of the Supreme Council of Justice and two other members chosen by the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Urban Planning. The Committee is a secretariat that is responsible for following up and implementing the decisions issued by the Commission and all with regard to their affairs and it will provide the required number of staff. The committee will decide on a matter of urgency in all disputes arising from the rental relationship between the landlord and tenant for the tenancy agreements to which the provisions of this law are applied. The resolutions issued by the commission will have the power of authority of the executive provided by the code of civil and commercial procedures”.

The concerned may appeal the decisions issued by the commission before the relevant court of appeal within 15 days beginning from the date of issuance of the commission’s decision if the order was given in the presence of the parties or from the following day of the announcement of the decision if the order was given in absence of the parties. The resolutions of the commission will include the expedited implementation. It is not permissible for non-relevant court of appeal to command to halt the implementation of its resolutions and the commission can extend the period required by the work experience.

It is noticeable that the work experience contributes greatly to delay the action in rental disputes. Some cases are resumed to stop the implementation of the decisions of the commission, and that prolongs litigation and makes the conflict standing between the corridors of the courts for a long time and becomes incompatible with the goal of the legislature to develop a mechanism for settling the rental disputes quickly. However, the implementation of the Law of Rent of Property No. 4 / 2008 and the resolutions associated with it achieved a significant balance and were able to stop the rise in rental value of the real estate units the places of habitation. It also brought the relationship between landlords and tenants to normal after the housing and real estate companies completed the implementation of several big real estate projects and expanded the market with a myriad of units and the places of habitation and contributed to restore the balance between supply and demand significantly and we once again started reading the daily ads that expose these places for rent.

But the problem persists for the places and parts of premises prepared for commercial or industrial purposes because of the limited supply and increasing demand for this type as well as the work of demolition and reconstruction, which prolonged a number of commercial markets for the urban development.