Saida sit-in against adoption of commercial rent law

Former tenants of shops and offices in Saida's commercial market held a sit-in on Thursday in front of the city market entrance to protest against the adoption of the commercial rent law, published in the Official Gazette on Thursday.

“The adoption of the law is an injustice to them and will deal a severe blow to trade and development in Lebanon, especially because the vast majority do not pay one or two dollars in rent as has been portrayed, but rather high rents under a lease contract registered with the Ministry of Finance,” said representatives of the Order of Pharmacists Abbas Wehbi, traders of Metn, Georges Yammine, and Saida Hamed Jazini.

These representatives called on the President of the Republic to “reconsider this law, send it back to Parliament,” and legislators to “work on drafting legislation that protects both the rights of the owner and the tenant.” The protesters also announced that they were “about to file an appeal against the law before the Constitutional Council,” and finally called on other unions to “follow their example in the challenge, like the Order of Engineers, Dentists, and others, before they are evicted from their offices and institutions.”

Several tenant rights defense committees have recently expressed their rejection of the rent law. The defense committee for the rights of former tenants in the North had already described this law as “unjust.” In 2014, Parliament adopted a law initiating a gradual liberalization process of old residential rents and extended the old regime for commercial leases until Dec. 31, 2018. The situation had not evolved since then.