Lawyers anticipate increase in sublease disputes (with Regina Santos Pereira)

«"The substitution of the State in the payment of the rents may be a positive sign for landlords, as long as it is not dependent on the verification of requirements that are not compatible with the reality of the market", considers Regina Santos Pereira, a Partner at SRS Legal. However, this lawyer adds that "if the beginning of an eviction as soon as the tenant doesn't pay three months rent is a condition for the substitution of the State, the measure may not bring any usefulness". This, because in the majority of cases, landlords don't immediately begin an eviction in these cases, due to the costs and slowness of the processes - be it at the "Balcão do Arrendamento" (rental office), or in the courts.
For Regina Santos Pereira, "the insecurity felt by landlords is not only found in the non-payment of rent, but in a set of circumstances that, over the years, have been maintained and worsened. Such as the instability of the legislation, with innumerable alterations of difficult interpretation and of retroactive application which alter the agreed rental conditions".
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In the opinion of Regina Santos Pereira, partner at SRS Legal, "the legality will depend on the application requirements that will be legislated". For this measure to be legal, "it will have to respect the principle of proportionality between the public interest of ensuring the right to housing and the right to private property". Even so, stresses the lawyer, "this interventionist measure will not be well seen by the owners", so she defends that they should be heard before it is applied.»