New clash between the Generalitat and the Ministry of Housing over the index that some rental contracts will hit. The Government expected that the rental price reference system would be published this Wednesday, as announced a few days ago by the Secretary of State for Housing and Urban Agenda, David Lucas. However, sources from the Ministry headed by Isabel Rodríguez advance that the scheduled date is “from March 15.” That is, Friday. This delay has led the Catalan Executive to demand explanations from the central office.
“We didn’t know anything and we have asked for explanations (from the ministry),” say sources from the Territory Department. The entry into force of the reference price index has been awaited for months by the Generalitat, which plans to declare a stressed area that will cover 140 municipalities.
Sources from the Ministry of Housing confirm that today, March 12, the public consultation period that was set and which was 10 days ends. They add that, “legally, 24 extra hours must be enabled.” “That is, March 13 is enabled to respond to all citizen or institutional queries,” these sources explain. “In turn, the ministry has to wait for those queries that have entered through another registry other than that of the General Administration,” such as that of the autonomous communities.
The Secretary of State himself, David Lucas, is expected to sign tomorrow, March 13, the resolution for the publication of the rental index in the Official State Gazette (BOE). Therefore, the Ministry of Housing expects that the publication of the index in the BOE will occur “as of March 15.”
The Ministry of Housing emphasizes that, at the same time that the reference price system is officially published in the BOE, the declaration of a stressed area can be processed. Catalonia is the only autonomous community that has requested it to date. It is possible, therefore, that the index and the stressed area are published on the same day, always starting on March 15.
