By Roy Pelovello

HOUSE Speaker Prospero Nograles and Oriental Mindoro Rep. Rodolfo Valencia have filed a bill regulating house rental rates to replace the rent control law that expired last Dec. 31.

Nograles and Valencia, in House Bill 5703, jointly noted that a new rent control law will ease the plight of the people who last year suffered from the spiraling cost of fuel, transport fare increases, and the skyrocketing prices of basic commodities.

A related bill was earlier filed in the Senate by Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri who said at least 1.5 million families would suffer from sudden and sharp increases in housing rent if the just-elapsed law was not replaced.

Vice President Noli de Castro, the administration?s housing czar, supported the crafting of a new rent control law and endorsed Zubiri?s bill.

Like Zubiri?s proposal, the Nograles-Valencia bill covers all residential units in the National Capital Region and other highly urbanized cities where monthly rent does not exceed P10,000, and all residential units in other areas where rent does not exceed P5,000 monthly.

Among the key features of the new bill is the provision that the rent of any residential unit covered by the bill shall not be increased by more than 10 percent annually, as long as the unit is occupied by the same lessee.

The bill prohibits the lessor from demanding more than one month advance in rent or more than two months deposit, which shall be kept in a bank under the lessor?s account while the lease agreement is in force.

Any interests that shall accrue on the deposit shall be returned to the lessee at the expiration of the contract, the bill said.

The rent shall be paid in advance within the first five days of every month or the beginning of the lease agreement, unless the contract of lease provides for a later date of payment, according to the bill.

To also protect the landlords, the proposed law defines the grounds for ejection of the lessor, which include failure to pay rent, the need to repair the unit in case it has been condemned by building authorities, or if the owner will now use it for his family.

The lawmakers noted that since RA 9431, which was enacted in 2005 and expired last Dec. 31 also pegged the rent ceiling at P10,000 per unit for Metro Manila and other highly urbanized areas, and P5,000 for other areas, the actual rent ceiling should have been raised to P13,210 and P6,665, respectively.

But they said their bill pegged the rental ceilings to the 2005 level ?to protect principally those in the low income brackets, especially those who are marginalized, and are at or below the threshold level.?

They noted that based on the 2006 Family Income and Expenditure Surveys, 14.2 percent of a family?s total expenditures paid for the rent.

?If that were so, a family in the National Capital Region or in other highly urbanized cities that can afford to pay a rent of P13,310 per month must therefore have a total expenditure of P93,732.4 per month and it will do such family well if it, instead, take out a low-cost urban housing loan with the Pag-IBIG fund,? the lawmakers said.