Mandatory lists of approved rental properties

The new Rental Act, passed on 1 August, granted municipalities the authority to register rental properties.

However, the municipalities have not yet started registering rental properties that meet fire safety requirements.

This has prompted Eyðgunn Samuelsen, the Minister of Social Affairs, to make lists of fire-safety approved rental properties mandatory.

She argues that this provision would help prevent situations in which tenants live in unsafe buildings.

The demand for housing is greater than ever, but not many rules and regulations cover rental properties, the result being that many of these properties are in a poor, sometimes hazardous, condition, she says.

The rental committee will also be given greater authority to e.g. assess leases and unreasonable rental costs.

Samuelsen hopes this measure will go some way towards a more organised rental property market.

See also:

Rental market under pressure

Rental Act to cover fire safety

Translated by prosa.fo