Session on rent for migrants was from law to practice in Portugal

Uma session on housing lease, addressed to the migrant community, today held in Figueira da Foz, in the district of Coimbra, clarified concepts present in the law, but also addressed practical issues, which so often succeed in the margins of legislation.

The initiative, promoted by the coastal municipality of the Centro region, under the "Region of Coimbra - Tua Casa" programme, has been proposed to share useful and accessible information about the housing lease in Portugal, clarifying doubts and making known resources and support services to help the recipients to access a dignified housing.

João Pedro is a lawyer and was the service trainer in the session scheduled for the beginning of tonight, for which eight people, who live and work in Figueira da Foz, from South America (Brazil and Argentina), but also from South Asia, signed up.

If, soon to be opened, the mention of articles of the Civil Code, the urban rental regime and mandatory provisions in contracts as sources of information on the subject stood out, the difference, in Portuguese, between renting and renting – ended up generating fun moments, with the trainer correcting the gifts, always in a paused and calm tone, every time they were wrong.

‘You rent what you do not move, like a house, you rent what you can move, like a bicycle or a car’, the lawyer emphasized.

Then, the session “Digne Housing – Practical Issues in Renting”, held in partnership with EAPN Portugal – European Anti-Poverty Network versed on deadlines for everything a little – settlement of the contract, opposition to resolution or complaint, among others – rights and duties of landlords and tenants and also what is contrary to the law, if there is no agreement between the parties, such as the requirement of various rents or absurd collateral values (which, in many cases, is never returned) and, at the limit, what is all illegal, such as the absence of contracts and the refusal to pass receipts and whom to turn to.

In the latter case, one of the ‘trucks’ declared in order to be able to prove payment is to try to do so by bank transfer; if the amount due by the lease is required in cash, ask the landlord to sign a paper certifying it. And if it doesn't even work, send a message informing you of the payment and expect an answer, which may never come.

From an Asian country, a man present at the session, a 36-year-old who did not want to be identified, revealed to be in Figueira da Foz four years ago, with the woman, who works in a hotel unit and the child underage.

Compared to the reality of the overwhelming majority of migrants, it seems to have a more unhappened life: it works, from a distance, on its own, for a travel agency owned by a direct family member, it brings European tourists to visit their country and speaks three languages – Singaporean, English and Portuguese – a little French and is learning Norwegian.

However, the EUR 900 paid monthly for a T3 in a prime area of the city (to which, in a one-year contract, two advance rents and a guarantee of the same value, i.e. EUR 3,600 in total), weigh on the family budget.

‘I am looking for a cheaper option this year’, he said.

A hypothesis may be passed through the affordable income regime, although the lack of available housing and the conditions for accessing it may possibly hinder this ambition.

Still, the lawyer João Pedro, a lesson studied, indicated, in the affordable income, the maximum values admitted to Figueira da Foz: range from 365 euros to a T0 to 960 euros of a T5, passing the 467 euros (T1), 608 (T2), 749 euros (T3) and 819 euros for a T4 apartment.

"Sessions like this are very important for people to know what the law provides for in the lease in Portugal. They can even be deceived [by those who rent their homes], but they know that they are being deceived”, he noted.