The real estate market goes through an uncertainty related to the regulations approved to stop the expansion of Covid-19 and that declared a moratorium on the payment of royalties by tenants.
The regulation approved by the Executive, after the start of the pandemic, temporarily suspended the payment of fees to the affected tenants, while the national emergency lasted, so that later this commitment was canceled. However, in many cases, debts of thousands of dollars have been accumulated by tenants with the limitation that launches cannot be made.
The lawyer Ausberto Rosas, explained that this suspension is not general, in the sense that it will only apply to people who have been affected by the pandemic, such as, for example, suspension of employment contracts or who have suffered reductions in Labor journeys. “In these cases, the person has the protection of the law of the suspension of payment, but it does not exempt him from facing the payment later,” he said.
He stated that those people who have been integrated in the reactivation of the activities carried out by the Government, have had to formalize agreements with their landlords to regularize their arrears. At the same time, he highlighted that some have made debt forgiveness and lagged payments.
“In many cases, for the effect of the landlords, the owners, who are not all people who have fortune or some economic muscle behind them, this situation has been very heavy because the Government has not provided any consideration, that is, property owners continue to pay property taxes, paying for water, paying for cleaning, electricity bills, and a series of situations that complicate this, ”explained the lawyer.
According to Rosas, if someone does not have the capacity to cope with the delinquencies produced during the time of the pandemic, they will have to find where to move and pay a lower fee than the one they paid where they were.
He added that there is a housing law, known as Law 93 of 1973, which provides for a subsidy that is against the housing savings fund, a subsidy that can go up to six months of unpaid royalties, but it has not been activated. “This would be of great help for both parties, both for the landlord and the tenant and in this way we collaborate; not all the debt will be covered, but something is definitely better than nothing in these extreme cases, “he said.
The lawyer also mentioned that there are cases of abuse, where one of the spouses, even the main tenant, works, for example, in a public entity and never had a suspended contract and they stopped paying the rents. “In these cases, as of this year it is allowed to file the launching lawsuits, but obviously, if the lessee proves that he maintains the suspension of his contract or some economic impact, the launch execution is postponed, but it is not that can file lawsuits for launch ”, he remarked.
The percentage of the existing moratorium is unknown because for months a census has not been carried out to gauge the impact of non-compliance with the payment or the agreed arrangements.
