First fines for rents exceeding the maximum limit
The Government detects 30 contracts punishable for breaking the law
BarcelonaIt has been seven months since the law that regulates the price of rents in Catalonia, the 11/2020, is in force. This law sets a reference index for rents that cannot be exceeded in any of the new contracts that are made in the 60 municipalities where it is applied. But this limit is not being complied with and that is why it has been announced that the first fines will be imposed. The Government has explained that it is finishing a first phase of detection of irregular rentals and has already found 30 punishable contracts. Most of them are for not stating the reference index, which prevents checking if the price exceeds the legal limit. The contracts with violations have been signed in Manresa, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Sabadell, Barcelona, Badalona, Terrassa, Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Sant Adrià de Besòs, Vic, Rubí, Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Lleida, El Vendrell, Reus and Tarragona.
The Agència de l'Habitatge de Catalunya (Catalan Housing Agency), of the Department of Territory and Sustainability, has advanced that it will send letters to the councils of the 15 municipalities affected because the competence to sanction when the law is violated in these contracts is of the consistories. But they added that if the councils, within 10 days, communicate that they will not assume the management of fines, the Government will take charge of them. The penalties range from 3,000 to 90,000 euros. The Agència de l'Habitatge has supervised the contracts that have been signed over the last seven months through the Institut Català del Sol (Incasòl), which monitors rental deposits: it has thus been able to detect those that are irregular. The fines are between 9,000 and 90,000 euros if the price exceeds the maximum limit by 20%. If it exceeds it by less than 20%, the fines are between 3,000 and 9,000 euros.
Despite the fact that the PP filed an appeal against this law before the Constitutional Court, which has been admitted for processing and is being studied, the regulation remains in force because it has not been challenged by the Spanish government.
