[ manilastandardtoday.com ] July 15, 2009
Families and individuals who live in rented dwellings will not have to worry about any rental increases for one year as President Arroyo has signed the Rent Control Act of 2009.
The law imposes a one-year moratorium on rent increases and prohibits any rental hike for houses, apartments and other residential units including boarding houses, dormitories, rooms and bed spaces being offered for rent.
After the one-year moratorium on housing rental increases, the new law caps hikes to only 7 percent per year until 2013, according to Vice President Noli de Castro, also housing czar of the administration.
Violators will suffer fines ranging from P25,000 to P50,000 under the law which Mrs. Arroyo signed yesterday before she left for Egypt to attend the Non-Aligned Movement’s meeting.
The new law replaces Republic Act 9341 or the Rent Control Act of 2005 which expired last Dec. 30.
De Castro said the new law complemented the government’s efforts to ensure affordable housing, especially for those who were earning less.
“This brings much-needed relief to housing tenants during this time of crisis. The bottom line is to keep families’ monthly expenses for housing low, so that they still have money for other needs,” De Castro said.
“This is in the same vein as our recent reforms in the housing sector, especially in the Home Development Mutual Fund, to lower housing loans interest rates in order to bring down the monthly amortizations,” he said.
Senator Miguel Zubiri, one of the law’s authors, clarified that the new rent control is not retroactive to Jan. 1, 2009.
The rent control law is also authored by Rodolfo Biazon in the Senate and House Speaker Prospero Nograles, Rep. Rodolfo Valencia, Rep. Teodoro Casiño and Rep. Amado Bagatsing in the House of Representatives.
The measure covers all residential units in Metro Manila and other highly-urbanized cities where monthly rental does not exceed P10,000 and P5,000 for other areas.
It also limits the advance payment to the equivalent of one-month rent and deposit to not more than two months worth of rent. Joyce Pangco Pañares and Fel V. Maragay
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