Doha: A Qatari landlord said on Saturday it was too early to judge a new law blocking rent hike for two years and said property owners were waiting for further by-laws to be issued soon.
Emir Shaikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani passed a new law on Thursday making all existing tenancy contracts valid until February 14, 2010, with immediate effect until the Cabinet issues a further decision regulating rental increases.
"It is too early to judge the new legislation. The law is blocking rents only until the Cabinet provides further regulations on the rental increases. We are waiting for the authorities to decide what would be the new percentage of increase that we can implement," Mohammad Al Emadi, head of a major real estate company, told Gulf News on Saturday.
Dispute committee
The new legislation provides for all existing contracts to be registered within a year with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture and imposes a registration fee of one per cent of the annual rent amount.
All future rental contracts will have to be registered within 30 days of its issue.
One of the most important provisions is the creation of a rent dispute settlement committee that will solve all rental disputes.
In addition, the legislation restricts the possibility of landlords evicting tenants and imposes the payment of all maintenance and renovation work. If the landlord does not comply with the provision, the tenant is entitled by the committee to deduct the expenses for the maintenance work from the rent.
No subletting
The law also prohibits tenants from subletting properties.
The new rent legislation had been expected for several months, as Qatar's inflation rate reached a record 14 per cent at the end of last year, mainly due to spiralling rents.
Over the past four years an increasing population has increased the demand for flats and villas in the country with rents soaring by more than 150 per cent since 2004.
