News

New amendments to the Law on the right to housing

18/05/2022

The DOGC today publishes LAW DECREE 5/2022, of May 17, on urgent measures to contribute to mitigating the effects of the war conflict in Ukraine in Catalonia and updating certain measures adopted during the pandemic of the COVID-19 that modifies and incorporates several precepts of Law 18/2007, of December 28, on the right to housing and we highlight:
 
Article 3, section d) of Law 18/2007 is amended, which is drafted as follows:
 
"d) Empty home: the home that remains unoccupied permanently, without justifiable cause, for a period of more than two years. For this purpose, the transfer for work reasons, the change of address due to a dependency situation and the fact that the ownership of the house is the subject of a judicial dispute pending resolution are justified causes. Occupancy without a legitimate title does not prevent a home from being considered empty".
 
Article 69 of Law 18/2007 is amended, which is drafted as follows:
 
"Article 69 Social mediation in housing rentals
 
1. The department responsible for housing must establish a system of public and private consultation to encourage owners and private investors to put on the rental market homes aimed at people and cohabitation units with difficulties of all kinds to access the housing market.
 
2. Incentives for property owners and investors can consist of guarantees and guarantees for collection and aid for putting them in habitable conditions.
 
3. The system referred to in paragraph 1 must be managed by a social mediation network subsidized by the Government, which can be integrated by local public administrations, non-profit entities or agents linked to housing that subject to the conditions and the control system that must be established by regulation.

4. The homes obtained through the system referred to in this article can be offered to elderly people in the event that their homes do not adapt to their physical or economic conditions. When the previous home of the beneficiary is owned, formulas must be established so that it can be used temporarily or permanently by the Administration within the social rental programs."
 
An article 69 bis is added to Law 18/2007, of December 28, on the right to housing, with the following wording:
 
"Article 69 bis Transfer of housing to the Administration
 
The department responsible for housing must establish a voluntary system for obtaining housing from the private market, especially the unemployed, through which the assignment of the management of the use or the assignment of the use of housing in the public administration, to allocate it to the Social Inclusion Housing Network (XHIS), to increase the provision of social housing to make available to the Bureau for the assessment of situations of economic and social emergencies of Catalonia or local authorities, and to the Register of Applicants for Housing Official Protection of Catalonia."
 
Article 70, paragraph 4, of Law 18/2007, of December 28, is amended, which is drafted as follows:
 
"4. The homes obtained through the systems established in article 69 and 69 bis can be offered to non-profit organizations or municipal social services so that they can use them as insertion homes."
 
Effects: This decree-law enters into force the day after its publication in the DOGC.