Landlords praise presidential veto but don´t expect change

The National Landlords´ Association applauds "with both hands" the presidential veto of the set of legislative changes on housing approved by the PS´s absolute majority in Parliament, but does not expect anything to change.

"Those who passed these laws made the small owner, the small landlord the enemy to be fought and that is deeply wrong," António Frias Marques reacted, speaking to Lusa. The president of the National Landlords´ Association (ANP) believes that the forced rental of vacant homes - which is part of the government´s legislative package, approved in parliament on 19 July - "is violence of all sizes", criticising the government for wanting to "dispossess people of what is theirs".

The President of the Republic vetoed the set of legislative changes in the housing sector approved by the PS´s absolute majority in parliament, expressing a "serene negative judgement" on them. Explaining his position in seven points, the President of the Republic says of the forced letting of vacant homes that "it is so limited and time-consuming that it appears as a merely symbolic emblem, with a political cost greater than the tangible social benefit".

At the same time, he points out, the law "hardly makes it possible to recover any lost confidence on the part of private investment, and it is certain that the public and social investment it provides for is restrained and slow".

Forced rental, one of the most controversial measures
The forced rental of vacant homes is one of the Mais Habitação measures that has generated the most controversy and is aimed at homes that have been vacant for more than two years and are located outside the interior of the country. Owners will have 90 days to respond after being notified to carry out work or put the property to use. If there is no response within the set time limit, the respective municipality can proceed with the forced letting of the property.

Holiday homes, those that are vacant because the owner is in a care home or providing permanent care as an informal carer and those of emigrants, as well as those of people displaced for professional, health or training reasons, are not considered vacant for this purpose.

The president of the ANP emphasises that "nothing can be done, particularly in the area of renting, without private initiative". António Frias Marques describes landlords as "people who are often even poorer than tenants" and notes that "today the landlord no longer even owns a building, he owns a floor" and that investing in buying a floor and then renting it out "is a way of saving money".

For landlords, the "central issue" is the "lack of guarantees, even in the courts, regarding non-payment of rent", and they are calling for effective measures from the government.

"People play games with landlords. Nobody does anything about it"
"That´s where we really need to attack. Find a swift way for defaulters to be evicted," he says, noting that the ANP has seen cases of "six, seven years" of non-payment of rent. "And nobody puts them out on the street," he laments. "People play games with the landlords. Nobody does anything about it," he criticises.

"It´s unfortunate. The country is made up of many sensitivities and this was approved against all odds. We should all be rowing in the same direction and so we are against each other," agrees the president of the ANP.

"Nobody in their right mind thinks that these measures coming out of the Assembly of the Republic are going to solve the huge problem of the housing shortage," he predicts.

Solving the housing shortage involves "building houses", points out António Frias Marques, recalling that "the government has been in power for eight years".

The ANP has no expectations about possible changes to the legislation now returned to Parliament. "It´s clear that this will be re-approved again and probably without changing a single line, a single comma," he anticipates.

Source: Agência Lusa