The Government of Maldives has submitted a bill to the parliament to regulate rental properties in the country.
The draft of the bill that regulates the rental policies of all properties in Maldives state all tenants must be charged only a two-month deposit by the owners while the payments are to be deposited to the account of a Tenancy Board formulated as per the bill. The tenancy board constitutes of three members appointed by the president.
The bill requires the tenancy boards to refund deposit payment within a duration of 15 days once a tenancy agreement is terminated by the tenant or the owner, after evaluating the terms of the termination. The bill also restricts the collection of advance payments except for when payments are fully made for the entire rental period and specifies 6 months as the minimum rental period of a property while a property can be rented out for a period of 10 years.
Owners and tenants cannot bring changes to the tenancy agreements during the contracted period. The agreement terms can be revised when an agreement is renewed after serving the contracted period.
The bill also mandates owners and tenants to register rental agreements if a property is rented for more than 6 months. Rental agreements of cities are to be registered at the city councils while rental agreements of properties in islands are to be registered at the island council. The councils are required to register the agreements at the respective councils within 7 days of the application.