Tenancy Law amended


In Business Todays January 2011 edition, an article on the recent amendments to the Tenancy Law here in Oman has been published which is well worth reading (click the link to go to the article).

This is slightly dated news but I only just recently became aware of it and figured some of you would not yet be aware of these recent changes either. Some of them are very significant for tenants leasing here in the Sultanate.

Below is a summary of the major changes that have been made to the Tenancy Law.

Summary of significant changes (ripped from the article in Business Today)
  • The requirement that landlords may only increase the rent every three years has been amended such that parties can now agree otherwise.
  • The cap of seven per cent of the annual rental value stipulated in the lease contract has been eliminated.
  • The earliest a landlord can terminate a lease for commercial property has been reduced from seven to five years.
  • In the case of residential property this is reduced from four to three years.
  • The new law provides a mechanism for the landlord to recover expenses incurred in litigation in relation to eviction notices served as a result of non-payment of rent.
Well, as you can see - as nicely summarized by Emilie Sarker from Trowers & Hamlins in the Business Today article - it's open season for the landlords to start jacking up the rents again. Just in time for the anticipated boom in housing generated by the influx of expats working on the Airport. Basically the landlords got 5 major amendments to the law, and the tenants got nothing.

Here we go again then.

le fin.
Tenancy Law amended Tenancy Law amended Reviewed by Sythe on Wednesday, February 09, 2011 Rating: 5

6 comments:

  1. I guess they eventually realised the landlords are mainly Omanis and expats are primarily tenants, so it works well.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's 'Amended' Sythe...

    I guess the recession is officially over. What are the rights of tenants?

    ReplyDelete
  3. English is not my strongest talent :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Is it becoming increasingly fashionable by the day to pass adhoc laws and than to reverse them ?
    As with the tenancy laws amendment, there was a change in the visa laws also; visas pertaining to certain professions as barbers / gardners etc.
    This is certainly moving in the same direction as the Indian sub-continent system - as the person on the chair changes, the law changes, just so to suit the concerned 'stakeholders' of that particular time ......

    ReplyDelete
  5. nothing about tenants being able to claim litigation expenses for non provision of landlords obligations ?

    but there will still be LOTS of empty buildings - look at the number of Saud Bahwan staff who will be shifting into company accomodation and the vast number of new tall blocks of flats close to completion -

    walk with your feet if you have a problem with rent
    the new expressway has given you new areas to search

    ReplyDelete
  6. I don't see anything wrong in the new clauses. I mean there are enough of buildings so I hope the prices won't rice dramatically. The flexibility of the contacts doesn't obligatory mean problems for the tenants.

    ReplyDelete

This is a free blog hosted in the USA, comments are not moderated and should be treated as individual observations made by the commenter, they are not the views of the author of this blog unless specifically noted as such (eg a comment posted under the account of the blog owner). Should an individual or company wish a specific comment(s) removed please contact me at mrsythe[at]gmail[dot]com and inform me and I will delete it as soon as I read the email.

Powered by Blogger.