President Aoun signs law on non-residential rents

BEIRUT — The President of the Republic, Joseph Aoun, signed the law on non-residential rents on Thursday, a decision quickly welcomed by the landlords' union in a statement. Aoun also signed the law on teachers' pensions.

These two laws, published in the Official Journal on April 3, had been invalidated due to a procedural error. Indeed, they had not been promulgated by the president of the republic with the countersignature of the prime minister. Joseph Aoun thus filed, on April 17, an appeal with the Constitutional Council (CC) against the law on non-residential leases.

Reminder

Laws on non-residential rent and teachers’ pensions deemed invalid due to procedural flaw

The landlords' union thanked the president in a statement for the promulgation of the law on non-residential rents "after a year and a half of waiting."

"This confirms that his objection was about the publication mechanism, and not the content of the law, particularly as it restores balance in a previously unbalanced and abnormal relationship that prevailed for over forty years between landlords and tenants in non-residential premises, especially over the past six years," the statement specifies.

This law notably provides for the liberalization of rents signed before 1992, after a maximum transition period of four years following its entry into force. An owner can thus either demand a gradual increase in rents or waive it, awaiting eviction from the premises within two years. The new legislation thus ends the freeze on rents, very unfavorable to landlords, due to inflation and currency devaluation since the financial crisis of 2019.

The union also thanked "the prime minister and the Grand Serail's services, who on two occasions have taken the initiative to follow this case with legal rigor until a positive outcome," considering that "this reinforces the citizen's confidence in the quality of executive management of public affairs."

Fearing a new obstacle to the enforcement of the law, the union finally urges deputies "not to file an appeal against the law before the Constitutional Council."