DE LA RENTA

This law shall not apply to furnished dwellings or premises, being reputed as such those that include in the lease or in the sublease furniture with a value greater than one thousand quetzales, not including in that amount the shelving, the equipment and appliances destined to the permanent service of the property or to provide it with comfort, such as refrigerators, stoves, water heaters, washing machines, dryers, radio broadcasting apparatus for amateurs or radio receiving sets, televisions and similar things. The real value of the furniture shall be fixed, where appropriate, by the tenancy judge, at the request of the landlord or of the tenant, applying for that purpose, by analogy, what this law provides regarding the appraisal of dwellings and premises.

Every increase of rentals of dwellings or urban premises is declared illegal, and the rental that, in accordance with the respective contracts, the landlords collected on November 1, 1960 must be maintained as a maximum. The rents of the immovable property built and leased or subleased before the last-mentioned date remain, consequently, frozen, and those who increase them or threaten the tenant with demanding that he vacate for grounds not authorized in this law, or who coerce him in any other illegal manner into vacating the leased property, shall incur the sanctions that this law establishes.

For the dwellings and premises that were unoccupied on November 1, 1960, no greater rent than the one paid by the last tenant may be charged, without prejudice to the provisions of the following article.

The rentals that were in force on November 1, 1960 or that the last tenant covered, as the case may be, may be increased only when the owner of the property has made new constructions, extensions or improvements of importance in unoccupied immovable property. In such cases, and for the effects of the computation of the rent referred to in Article 22, the real value that the property previously had shall be increased by a sum equal to that effectively invested in such works, in accordance with what appears in the municipal license obtained to carry out such works and in the municipal inspection subsequent to their completion.

The immovable property that has been built after November 1, 1960 and that has not yet been leased; and those that are built or completed in the future, shall remain completely free of the limitations that, in matters of rents, this law orders. Consequently, the parties shall enjoy, as regards them, the right of free contracting.

The leasing of dwellings or premises shall likewise be freely contracted when the real and total value of each of them exceeds twenty thousand quetzales.

Every tenant who is not in agreement with the amount of the rent that he is to pay in accordance with Articles 5, 6 and 7 of this law and who has not been able to reach an arrangement with the landlord shall have the right to institute the corresponding proceedings so that such rent is reduced and so that the maximum rent that the competent tribunal shall fix in accordance with the following article is applied to the dwelling or premises that he occupies.

The tenant interested in obtaining a reduction of the rent that he is paying shall request it in writing from the tenancy court in the capital or from the competent tribunals in the departments of the Republic. The reduction may be obtained amicably before the judge or by judicial decision through the application, to the real appraisal and reappraisal of the leased property, of the rates fixed in Article 22.

The appraisal or reappraisal, in such case, shall be carried out by experts, one designated by the tenant, one by the landlord and the third by the competent judge.

The tenant shall propose in his initial writing the appointment of an expert on his part and the court shall set the landlord a term of two days to designate his own. If this term expires without the landlord having appointed his expert or without the latter appearing to perform the position, the judge, ex officio, shall appoint the expert on the part of the landlord. Once the expert appraisers of both parties have been appointed, the judge, within the term of two days, shall in turn appoint the third one for the case of disagreement. The experts, within a maximum term of five days from the date on which the third one has been appointed, shall proceed, after ocular inspection of the property in question, to carry out the corresponding appraisal or reappraisal and shall communicate it to the judge in appearance or in writing and, in every case, under legal oath.

In the capital of the Republic and in the urban centers in which legally authorized appraisers or tax appraisers or rectifiers reside, the third expert must have any of those capacities. Those who have an official character may not refuse, without just cause, to perform the assignment, under penalty of removal from office.

In the municipalities in which there are tables or rules duly approved for the practice of tax or municipal appraisals, the expert appraisals shall adhere to these, as far as possible.

Each party shall cover the fees of its expert and one half of those corresponding to the third expert. The fees of the expert appraisers appointed in accordance with this law are limited to one third of those authorized by Government Decree 1406.

If the appraisal or reappraisal fixed is greater than that recorded in the tax roll for the whole of the property, the tribunal, within the third day, shall send official notice to the corresponding Tax Roll Section so that the declared value of the immovable property is increased without delay.

Appraisals or reappraisals that fix for the immovable property a value lower than that registered in the tax roll shall not produce any modification of the latter.

The sums declared in the tax roll shall not influence the fixing of the values to which this law refers. The appraisals shall be based on the real value of the leased property.

Every appraisal and reappraisal shall be limited to the leased property for which the reduction of rent has been requested.

When the leased property forms part of a building of more than one floor, the value of the land shall be calculated in accordance with the following rules:

a)The floor situated at street level (first floor) shall be calculated by applying the unit value of the land properly speaking to the corresponding area; and

b)The floor or floors situated above or below street level shall be computed as follows:

The second floor with a value equivalent to one half of the unit value of the land occupied by the first; the third floor with a unit value equivalent to one third of the value of the land of the first and so on successively.

In mezzanine floors no value whatsoever may be computed for the land.

The appraisal or reappraisal shall separately assess the value assigned to the occupied land, the value of the construction and the value of the services that the dwelling or the premises enjoys.

The reduction that the tribunal shall obligatorily decide, exclusively in favor of the requesting tenant, shall be equivalent to the difference between the maximum rental corresponding to the dwelling or to the premises in accordance with Articles 5, 6 and 7 of this law and the sum resulting from applying the corresponding rate to the final appraisal, in accordance with Article 22.

A reduction of rent may not be requested by the same tenant except after two years have elapsed from having obtained the previous reduction for the same immovable property.

The reductions definitively decided by the tribunal shall begin to govern on the day on which the next rental due date must be paid.

If by reason of the appraisal or reappraisal the landlord is entitled to charge a rent greater than those authorized as maximums in Articles 5, 6 and 7, these maximum rents may not be increased.

The rent that the respective tribunal must obligatorily fix in favor of the tenant who institutes proceedings to obtain a reduction shall conform to the following table of rents:

I.Dwellings or premises appraised at five thousand quetzales (Q.5,000.00), or less, six per thousand (6‰) per month.

II.Dwellings or premises appraised at fifteen thousand quetzales (Q.15,000.00), or less, but at more than five thousand quetzales (Q.5,000.00): seven per thousand (7‰) per month.

III.Dwellings or premises appraised at twenty thousand quetzales (Q.20,000.00), or less, but at more than fifteen thousand quetzales (Q.15,000.00): eight per thousand (8‰) per month.

The rent shall continue to be paid, in every case, in monthly installments due at the end of each month. Each periodic payment of rent shall automatically produce an extension of the contract for the same period that elapses between two successive rental due dates. Every stipulation to the contrary shall be void.