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Rental guarantee: the law on rental leases violated with impunity in Kinshasa

29/07/2024

In the Congolese capital, organized disorder reigns in the housing sector, especially in terms of rental guarantees. Each lessor dictates his will to the detriment of the applicants under the helpless eye of the competent authority. The rental guarantee in Kinshasa is set in violation of the law on rental leases promulgated at the time of President of the Republic Joseph Kabila, on December 31, 2015.

 

While the law on rental leases, in its article 18, sets the rental guarantee at three months for residential leases and six months for socio-cultural leases, on the ground each lessor establishes his principle. Few are the lessors who scrupulously respect the law on rental leases.

 

Indeed, some lessors set the rental guarantee at 5, 6, 8 or even 10 months. Faced with this situation and the absence of public authority, applicants do not know what to do, because the lessors are the masters of the game.

 

Approached by Mediacongo press (MCP), a lessor clearly stated that some lessors freely set the rental guarantee, because they own their houses and the Congolese State.

 

However, the law on rental leases in its article 39 provides for a sanction against lessors who do not respect provision 18 of the law which sets the rental guarantee at 3 months for the residential lease.

 

Article 39 of the law on rental leases stipulates: "any lessor who receives a guarantee exceeding three months for the residential lease or 6 months for the socio-cultural lease is punished with three months of principal penal servitude, a fine ranging from 3 to 6 months of rent or one of these penalties only".

 

Unfortunately, on the ground this provision of the law is not applicable. No competent authority acts to force lessors to respect the law in this matter. Hence the cry of alarm of the population of Kinshasa who do not know where to turn for the strict application of the law on rental leases.

 

Daniel Aloterembi

congo-press.com / MCP, Mediacongo.net via IMCongo.com