Govt surveys citizens on residential lease contract

JEDDAH: The Ministry of Housing has launched an online opinion poll to survey community members about their views on the Unified Rental Contract system, which will be released within the framework of the ‘Ijar’ system.
The system seeks to establish an electronic network that controls all rental contracts, in addition to boosting confidence of the relevant parties involved in the contracts by recording and documenting the mutual obligations of the tenants, landlords and the real estate mediators, reported a local newspaper. The contracts signed through the online system will be legally binding, just as paper contracts are.
Ijar system’s General Supervisor Engineer Mohammad Al-Batti pointed out the importance of the participation of all society members, including specialists, interested persons or others, in the survey so that they can properly express their views regarding the draft contents of the unified rental contract.
“Ijar is an advanced electronic network that offers integrated solutions for the rental sector. It puts all the parties involved in the rental process into one virtual process through the website that allows them to regulate the relations between themselves, thus maintaining the rights of all parties and ensuring their mutual benefit in addition to their adherence to the provisions of the contract,” said Al-Batti, asserting that this new regulatory framework is bound to encourage investments in the residential units, which will consequently be reflected in the rental prices in the future. He explained that the ministry will soon announce the launch of the two phases of the e-project; the first will involve the registration and rehabilitation of real estate mediators to help them join the network, while the second will involve registering the rental contracts electronically.
The cabinet recently approved a number of controls and regulations that include mandating the licensed real estate mediators to register all the rental contracts, residential and commercial on the electronic network.
As per the decision of the Minister of Housing, at least one committee will be formed across the regions of the Kingdom to deal with cases where Saudi tenants are unable to pay their rents.