DEL ARRENDATARIO

Hotels, boarding houses, inns, lodging houses and houses destined to lodging are not subject to the limitations of rentals that this law provides, nor to the payment of rents in monthly installments due at the end of each month.

Every lease or sublease contract entered into after the date on which this law enters into force must be in writing and shall state the name and personal particulars of the landlord and of the tenant; the data necessary for the exact identification of the leased dwelling or premises; the purpose of these; the price of the rent and all the modalities of the agreement.

Contracts in which a monthly rent of ten quetzales (Q.10.00) or less is stipulated shall be exempt from the stamped paper and stamp tax.

The lack of a written lease or sublease contract, entered into after the entry into force of this law, shall be attributable to the landlord, who shall incur, for that omission, a fine equivalent to one month of rent.

The landlord is strictly obliged to issue and to deliver on the spot to the tenant a receipt signed for each monthly rental that he collects. The violation of this article shall cause the landlord to incur a fine equivalent to one month of rent. The stamped paper and stamp tax corresponding to the receipts shall be paid exclusively by the landlord.

No validity whatsoever shall be had by the obligations (promissory notes, documents, bills of exchange, etc.), signed or accepted by the tenants in favor of the landlord, his spouse or relatives, unless it is proven that directly or indirectly they do not constitute a means to evade the maximum rent fixed.

The sublease contract is governed by the same provisions that this law establishes for the lease contract. Whoever gives in sublease parts of an immovable property may not receive, in total, for that concept, more than 20% of the rent that he must pay to the landlord, including the rent corresponding to the dwelling or premises that the sublessor occupies. The action to appraise these shall correspond both to the landlord and to the tenants.

Sublessees shall have no rights other than those directly contracted with the sublessor. Consequently, they must vacate at the latest on the day that the latter does, unless they enter into a special prior written arrangement with the landlord.

The landlord of an immovable property or of part of it may not refuse to lease it to families with children, nor discriminate on the basis of race, political creed, social condition or nationality of the possible tenants, provided that these previously evidence their total solvency by reason of the contract agreed with the landlord of the dwelling or premises that they occupied immediately before requesting the new lease.

Any coercive acts or measures that the landlord executes to oblige the tenant to vacate and that have not been agreed by the competent tribunal are declared illegal and shall be sanctioned in accordance with the Penal Code. Consequently, landlords are prohibited from temporarily or definitively suspending the services of drinking water and electric light, leaving the roofs of the dwellings and premises uncovered, removing their floors, obstructing the drains, impeding the normal and ordinary use of the kitchen and of the sanitary services and removing doors, windows or grilles without just cause and the prior consent of the tenants, unless the landlord has obtained prior legal authorization, in accordance with the law.

When the landlord is not solvent for water service or electric service charges, these may not be suspended without first serving written notice of such insolvency on the tenant, who may make the corresponding payments within the ten days following the notice, being empowered to deliver, as cash, at the time of making the next payment of rentals, the receipts that evidence the satisfaction of those payments and of the charges paid for the resumption of such services.

In order to lease dwellings or premises, the landlord must previously obtain written authorization from Public Health, stating that the property meets the minimum sanitary conditions required by this law and the respective regulations. This authorization must be issued within a term no greater than ten days counted from the date of receipt of the application.

Sanitary authorization may not be granted for the leasing of dwellings or premises that lack an artificial floor over the entire extent of the covered area.

When dwellings or premises that face the street and that have no access to interior services are leased, the landlord shall be obliged to provide them with the minimum sanitary installation of toilet and washbasin.

At the request of a party, the judge shall set the obligated party a time limit that shall not exceed sixty days to proceed to the paving or to the installation of the aforementioned service and, in case of non-compliance, shall sanction him with a fine of ten to fifty quetzales, without prejudice to a new setting of a term with equal sanctions.

In case of non-compliance of the obligated party, the tenant may carry out on his own account any of the works to which this article refers, the cost of which, duly proven, he shall deduct from the rentals in the form fixed by the respective judge.