In a bizarre, restrictive and possibly unconstitutional new piece of legislation, the Government is to ban the unrestricted sale of private homes that had to be rebuilt after last summers fires in the Central region.
The Council of Ministers is preparing to approve a new decree-law that, retrospectively in some cases, will force owners of homes that have been rebuilt with State funds, to sign a ‘no sale for ten years’ agreement.
Ana Abrunhosa, the president of the Commission for Coordination and Regional Development of the Central area (CCDR-C), said, "the legislation will be altered to incorporate the fires of last October."
By altering the terms and conditions of the Support Program for Reconstruction of Permanent Residence (PARHP), all reconstructions paid for exclusively with public money will come under the 'no sale for ten years' ban, excluding houses in the Pedrógão Grande area.
The ten year ban agreement will have to signed when the house is ready to move back in to.
In an ill-considered comment, Abrunhosa said that the fact that a home had been rebuilt, “does not require you to stay there, the person can emigrate, for example; he just can not sell the house for the next ten years."
The restriction is valid only for houses that were rebuilt under the PARHP programme, which excludes the houses affected by the Pedrógão Grande fires as most were rebuilt using money from the Revita Fund.
In total, 261 houses have been rebuilt in Pedrógão Grande, 100 using Revita funds. Public money is being used to rebuild 361 houses and repair a further 431, although it is not yet clear whether repaired houses will come under the ten year sales ban.
The State again is meddling in the property market, using draconian measures to restrict owners use and disposal of private assets.
Those looking forward to selling their property and retiring have a choice of having no home to live in, or a ten year ban before selling up and moving on.
With this legislation, the State makes out it is doing householders a favour when in fact the rebuilding programme is admission that State is liable to pay compensation for the mishandling of the firefighting effort that left over 100 people dead.
As for the houses in the Pedrógão Grande area, since both public and private money was used to subsidise their reconstruction, it is up to each funder to decide whether or not to impose resale restrictions.
Comments
But will some canny north Europeans in high risk forested areas be now cancelling their hundreds of euros a year house insurance on the reassurance that the Portuguese State will pay for the rebuild (on the cheap with volunteer builders) ?
Point Taken.
Unless it is someone else's fault. The government saved money by admitting failures and rebuilding houses, rather than going through court, defending hundreds of individual claims or a class action.