The PS trusts that the Government issues a favorable criterion for the housing cooperatives law proposal in assignment of use that he presented this morning. The president of the party, Pere Baró, has defended that the initiative incorporates a new tool to face the problem of housing and has assured that they expect the executive to value positively a proposal that, according to the PS, expands the current alternatives without replacing either the public park, the rental, or private property.
General Counselor Laia Moliné has remarked that the group has not previously worked on the text with the Government during the last months, although the executive knew the will of the social democrats to present it. “We believe that it is not a law that we should have discussed with the Government before, because we consider it necessary and useful”he explained. Moliné added that they would not understand a contrary criterion to an initiative that, in his opinion, serves to make more tools available to the housing market. If the criterion is favorable, the text may still be modified during the parliamentary processing through amendments.
The proposed law, made up of 88 articles, regulates housing cooperatives in transfer of usea model in which the cooperative owns the building and the members have the right to live in a specific dwelling. Users cannot subsequently sell the flat or obtain a speculative profit from it and, when they leave the cooperative, they recover the contributions that are refundable. The home then passes to another person who meets the established requirements.
The text also regulates the access criteria, the management of non-payments, repairs to the property, separations, justified absences and the continuity of the right of use in certain family situations. Monthly fees must respond to the cooperative’s actual costs and may vary if financing or maintenance costs increase, but not based on market prices.
The initiative also opens the door for administrations to transfer land, grant guarantees or facilitate other support mechanisms. Baró assured that there is already interest from cooperatives and associations and recalled that aSome communes have already made land available to explore this model. “We do not intend to replace the public park, rent or private property. We want to find another tool to solve the problem of housing”, he concluded.
