The committee tasked with following up on the issue of the old tenants called Monday on President Michel Sleiman to reject the new rent law, noting that such a law aims at displacing the tenants and will result in sectarian and demographic division.
The old tenants staged a sit-in outside the National Museum to denounce the new rent law.
Earlier in the day, Tourism Minister Michel Faraon declared that that the new rent law is appropriate and fair for both the property-owner and the tenant, calling on the tenants to reorganize their remarks over the law for further discussions.
The tenants have been on a continuous strike, blocking several roads across Lebanon and voicing their rejection to the new rent law.
A couple of weeks ago, lawmakers passed a controversial draft rent law rejected by old tenants. Under the new law, rents regulated by the old rent law would increase over six years until they reach 5 percent of the current market value of an apartment.
More than 200,000 apartments, mostly in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, are estimated to be rented under the old law, which governs lease contracts enacted before 1992.
Inhabitants pay minimal rent fees that often amount to less than LL 1,000,000 a year – a remnant of the country’s preinflation days just after the Civil War.
Longtime tenants argue that the draft law would displace thousands of families. To watch Nada Andraos' full report, please click on the VIDEO above