BEIRUT: The Landlords Association called for legal action against tenants over protests that it considers fear-mongering, according to a statement released Tuesday.
The tenants' statements are attempting to spark “rivalry and hostility between landlords and tenants who refuse the new rent law,” the statement said, arguing that instead of widening the gap, the new rent law aims at “gradually recovering the balance in the contractual relationship.”
“Any move carried out by any gathering that claims to represent the tenants must be considered by security institutional as an official violation of the law,” the statement said, stressing that the dissent infringes on the rights of citizens who hold official documents that prove their ownership of the homes.
As such, the landlords called on the judiciary to intervene and sanction those responsible for publishing derogatory statements against the Landlords Associations, saying that background checks into the social and living conditions of these individuals would be in order
The head of the Landlords Association, Joseph Zogheib, clarified that the condemnation targets groups that are “purposely inciting fear amongst tenants in order to beef up mobilization against the law.”
Zogheib said that such groups were encouraging tenants with low incomes to protest the law by telling them that they would not receive compensation.
The law approved by lawmakers stipulated the designation of a special committee to estimate the current market value of rented residences, determine compensation for low-income families and resolve disputes that arise between tenants and landlords.
Last August, the Constitutional Council deemed two articles of the law pertaining to the designation of the committee unconstitutional. The committee, whose work was halted, was also tasked with overseeing state aid for tenants whose income does not exceed three times the minimum wage.
Zogheib said that “the tenants lobbied against the committee in a tactical move to mobilize low-income families.” By disrupting the work of this committee, the tenants could then claim that poor families would be displaced without compensation and without benefiting from the special fund, he said.
According to the new law endorsed last April, tenants under pre-1992 rental contracts will face rent increases in yearly increments over a six-year period, until annual rents reach 5 percent of the current market value of their residence.
Tenants argue that the law will displace thousands of families, claiming that close to 200,000 individuals benefit from rental contracts signed before 1992.
