What tenants and landlords will and will not be able to do according to the rental law project in the Dominican Republic

Santo Domingo, DR—With the new provisions contemplated in the draft law on rentals in the Dominican Republic, which is being studied by a special commission in the Chamber of Deputies, it is intended to guarantee the rights and duties of the owner of the property as well as the tenant, repealing old practices, such as the additional deposit for the payment to intermediaries or brokers at the time of renting a property.

This point is eliminated in article 12 of the referred bill authored by the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Alfredo Pacheco, where it states that “when a real estate commission must be paid for management for the rental, the responsibility for its liquidation will correspond to the owner or legal representative as long as he/she has contracted the brokerage management.”

Congressman Eugenio Cedeño, who presides over the commission reviewing this piece, understands that “This new procedure will be agile, fast, novel and guaranteeing for both parties.”

However, even though the bill modernizes some aspects, in some cases, new conflicts are created, for example, the term granted to the tenant to vacate the property after two months without honoring the payment.

At least that is the opinion of lawyer Juan Arturo Recio, a specialist in litigation related to rents.

“In all honesty, it is a project that needs more clarity in its discussion. The idea has been sold that after two months without payment a tenant will be able to be removed, when the reality is that after two months is when you will be able to request the special court that they intend to create with the project, the authorization of public force. While they impose a conciliation process on you along the way.”

Arturo Recio assured that “it is not true that right now there exist in the Dominican justice system, the tools to accelerate eviction processes in the way the project intends and above all. Basic procedural guarantees such as the registration of the contract and the deposit of the money in the Agricultural Bank are eliminated.

Regarding the section related to ethnicity, creed, social condition, or other forms of discrimination as conditions for renting housing, the jurist considered that it is “difficult to prove in court these elements to initiate a judicial process against landlords, without real legal bases.”

The bill, expected to be approved before the end of the current legislature, was approved in the first reading last May 24 after being debated in a public consultation.