Government approves simplification of laws on evictions and inheritances
Portugal’s government has approved a new set of laws to speed up evictions and unblock inheritances to prevent situations that enable one person to block the distribution of inherited assets among other beneficiaries.
At a Council of Ministers meeting on Thursday, the government approved new laws to speed up evictions and release undivided inheritances.
A statement from the Council of Ministers says that “two Provisional Laws and a Decree-Law were approved aiming at reestablishing confidence and incentives for supply-side renting; resolving the deadlock on undivided inheritances created by legal blockages; thereby increasing the number of houses available on the market and enabling the delimitation and disposal of rural inheritances”.
The Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, announced that one of the measures “regulates undivided inheritances more quickly”, another reviews the rental regime and a third “creates and regulates a housing emergency fund to meet and support situations of need”.
In the case of inheritances, the changes aim to accelerate “the use or sale of a property without a single person being able to block” the sharing of the inheritance, thus allowing rustic land to be cleaned and made profitable, and housing properties to be sold or rented.
“The possibilities and powers of succession planning have been expanded; mechanisms that accelerate the resolution of inheritance in the event of an impasse using succession arbitration have been reinforced; a new mechanism for the sale-sharing of undivided property is established, allowing any heir to raise the sale of an undivided property”, the statement reads.
In leasing, the objective is “to reinforce the contractual autonomy of the parties” to increase confidence in the market. Judicial proceedings will be fast-tracked in the event of non-compliance by tenants, and the minister added that the State must step in through social security and welfare to support those who are dispossessed and have no other means of finding or paying for an alternative by their own means.
Source: Vida Imobiliário; Credits: Lusa – FILIPE AMORIM/LUSA
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