Portugal moves to accelerate evictions, remove automatic suspension during appeals – Portugal Resident

Portugal’s government plans to make eviction orders immediately enforceable and allow landlords to begin proceedings after two months of unpaid rent rather than three.

Under the proposed rental reform that has already generated a lot of criticism, a judge’s decision ordering a tenant to leave would also authorise entry into the home and its return to the landlord.

The landlord would no longer have to open a separate enforcement case if the tenant refused to comply with the original ruling.

The Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing says the change is intended to eliminate duplicated proceedings that can leave property owners waiting years to recover their homes.

Under the present system, an eviction judgment does not by itself allow the property to be returned immediately. If a tenant does not leave voluntarily, the landlord must initiate another court action to enforce the decision.

The planned rental reform would effectively turn the initial judgment into an eviction warrant, removing what the government describes as “unnecessary administrative steps and delaying tactics”.

Tenants would retain the right to ask a judge to postpone their removal because of family circumstances, ill health and/ or the absence of alternative accommodation. It would be for the court to decide whether those circumstances justified a delay.

Evictions could proceed while appeals are pending

In another significant change, appeals against ordinary court eviction orders would no longer automatically suspend their enforcement.

A tenant could therefore be removed from the property while an appeal remained unresolved.

The government says this would bring ordinary proceedings into line with the Special Eviction Procedure introduced through the Tenant and Landlord Office, under which appeals already have no automatic suspensive effect.

Tenants would still be able to ask the court to halt an eviction pending appeal. They would have to demonstrate that immediate enforcement would cause considerable harm, and provide a financial guarantee – with the final decision again resting with a judge.

Unpaid-rent threshold reduced

As our previous report on this reform has explained, the government also intends to allow eviction proceedings to begin after two months of rent arrears, reducing the current three-month threshold.

Proceedings could additionally be launched against tenants who repeatedly pay at least eight days late — more than three times within 12 months or more than four times during an 18-month period.

Housing Minister Miguel Pinto Luz announced the measures following the July 9 Council of Ministers meeting as part of a broader reform intended to address Portugal’s housing crisis.

The government says simplifying evictions will reduce delays, combine decisions on unpaid rent and repossession and eliminate repeated court procedures.

Its request for parliamentary authorisation to legislate on rental law is expected to be submitted before parliament begins its summer recess this week.

A total of 1,447 property-vacation orders were issued last year, 44% more than in the previous year.

Despite that increase, evictions resulting from breaches of rental contracts are estimated to affect fewer than 1% of existing tenancies.

The relatively small proportion will strengthen questions over whether faster removals are a proportionate response to Portugal’s housing emergency — particularly when the same reforms reduce the time available to households that have fallen into arrears and could allow them to lose their homes before an appeal has been heard.

The problem with the minority executive’s plan to ‘request parliamentary authorisation to legislate on rental law’ is that if it gets the backing of right-wing party CHEGA, it will have enough in the way of parliamentary numbers to push these changes through.

Left-wing parties and housing movements have warned what the bottom-line is for vulnerable tenants, but unless other parties come on board, this reform could well become the new ‘reality’.

Source material: CNN Portugal/ LUSA