The Catalan Government of Salvador Illa has agreed with the parliamentary group Catalunya en Comú on the new sanctioning regime for fraud in the housing rental market. The aim is to ensure that those who do not comply with the regulation of rental prices, or make fraudulent use of seasonal rentals in order to avoid the established price limit, do not go unpunished.
The agreement also includes that the official website of the Catalan Department of Territory, Housing and Ecological Transition includes a single mailbox for filing complaints for alleged irregularities. The new sanctioning regime will apply to all new rental contracts.
The agreed fines will be classified as “very serious”, will be included in Law 18/2007, of December 28, on housing law and will range between €90,001 and €900,000 in the following 3 cases:
• If a landlord sets a rental price that exceeds the official index by 30% (if the price increases by less than 30%, or the price set in the previous contract is not stated in the contract or advertisements, the fine will range from €9,001 to €90,000
• If a seasonal rental contract does not state the purpose of the provisional period
• If a landlord, or a real estate agency, charges management costs to the tenant
The agreement also considers it a “very serious” infringement when such fraudulent use of the seasonal contract is carried out by a professional in the sector or a real estate portal, with fines that can range from €100,000 to up to one million euros, if the abusive practices are carried out repeatedly or against people in a vulnerable situation.
With the new regulation, the Catalan Executive wants to put an end to abusive practices in the current rental market in Catalonia, in a context in which society suffers from a deep housing crisis both due to the scarcity of existing supply in relation to demand, and the unsustainable increase in prices in recent years.
