Renting an apartment between RD$15 and RD$20 thousand pesos in Greater Santo Domingo is a thing of the past, due to the increases in long-term rental properties in different sectors of the city.
“The increase in rents is not from now, since the pandemic it has increased exorbitantly. A rent in the million zone that was around 20,000 pesos now costs 45, 37, or 40,000,” said Alenny Garabito, whose company, Time Homes, is dedicated to property management.
He highlighted that in “La Independencia, which was an area that was maintained with more or less reasonable prices and you cannot find a property for less than 30,000 pesos, 29,000 pesos for a room, really very high.”
Conditions, lawsuits and evictions
In addition to the high prices, tenants are supposed to adjust to new rules when establishing a lease, according to the provisions of Law 01178 on Real Estate Rentals and Evictions.
One reason for the lawsuit is that the tenant has failed to pay the rental price corresponding to two consecutive monthly payments. Another action on which it can be based is that the property is going to be subject to repair, reconstruction or new construction that merits vacancy; also in the need of the owner or his spouse to occupy the property, or by relatives of one of them, ascendants, descendants or collateral up to the second degree inclusive.
The Real Estate Rental and Evictions Law project also states that in the event that the tenant of a property unilaterally terminates the contract before the stipulated term, he will be obliged to pay the owner 20% of the rental price during the time remaining for the expiration of the contract.
The legislative piece approved in first reading in the Chamber of Deputies last week, establishes in the same way, that when the owner decides not to renew the contract, he will notify the tenant six months before the end of the contract, if the property is occupied by an establishment commercial or industrial, and three months if this is not the case.
Among the scenarios that are favorable for tenants, the text establishes in its sole paragraph Article 10, that homeowners may only charge a deposit to their tenants.
In the country, whoever is going to rent a property must generally have two deposits on hand plus a monthly payment in advance.
“In every rental contract, an advance payment is presumed to be stipulated as a deposit equivalent to the minimum amount of one month’s rent,” the aforementioned sole paragraph establishes.
It is prohibited to establish as a condition for renting housing not to have children, to be a foreigner or to establish discrimination related to ethnicity, sex, creed, social condition or other forms of exclusion.
Article 27 on public offer of rentals says that the press notices or any other means of publicity, through which real estate is offered for rent, will have the character of a public offer. Consequently, the offeror is obliged to comply with the terms of the offer and not to revoke it without just cause.
