Tenancy Law amended

In Business Todays January 2011 edition, an article on the recent amendments to the Tenancy Law here in Oman has been published which is well worth reading (click the link to go to the article).

This is slightly dated news but I only just recently became aware of it and figured some of you would not yet be aware of these recent changes either. Some of them are very significant for tenants leasing here in the Sultanate.

Below is a summary of the major changes that have been made to the Tenancy Law.

Summary of significant changes (ripped from the article in Business Today)

• The requirement that landlords may only increase the rent every three years has been amended such that parties can now agree otherwise.
• The cap of seven per cent of the annual rental value stipulated in the lease contract has been eliminated.
• The earliest a landlord can terminate a lease for commercial property has been reduced from seven to five years.
• In the case of residential property this is reduced from four to three years.
• The new law provides a mechanism for the landlord to recover expenses incurred in litigation in relation to eviction notices served as a result of non-payment of rent.

Well, as you can see - as nicely summarized by Emilie Sarker from Trowers & Hamlins in the Business Today article - it's open season for the landlords to start jacking up the rents again. Just in time for the anticipated boom in housing generated by the influx of expats working on the Airport. Basically the landlords got 5 major amendments to the law, and the tenants got nothing.

Here we go again then.

le fin.