Security crackdown on tenants association comes as govt introduces amendments to old rent law to ‘respond’ to criticism

In the face of staunch public outcry over a bill introducing revisions to the long-standing rent control laws, the government introduced new legislation last week to address criticism.

Alongside the legislation to change the laws collectively governing what is known as “old rent,” however, the government began to address the criticism in another way: a security crackdown on the Tenants Association, an organization that has been working for over 10 years to advance tenants' rights.

 At the end of last week, in Alexandria, a lawyer helping to organize the meeting was arrested and the association’s headquarters in the city was cordoned off by security to prevent tenants from attending the founding meeting on Friday. 

The lawyer, Ayman Essam, was arrested on Thursday on his way to participate in the association’s meeting. The Friday meeting was aimed at bringing tenants together to discuss their concerns regarding the legislation currently being discussed in the House of Representatives, according to a statement issued by the Popular Socialist Alliance Party in Alexandria on Saturday.

Essam appeared at the prosecution headquarters in New Cairo yesterday, and was handed a 15-day detention order by the Supreme State Security Prosecution today, according to Zohdy al-Shamy, the chairman of the board of trustees of the Socialist Popular Alliance Party, one of the parties participating in the association.

“Old rent” describes a constellation of legal parameters laid out in several separate rent control laws issued between 1920 and 1985. Generally, they act to protect two principles: restricting landlords from hiking rental rates and automatically extending lease contracts across generations.

Aside from the simmering anger of landlords, who resent the legal cap on the profits they could reap from old rental properties if they were leased at current market rates, the old rent laws are also the foundation on which various other urban issues rest. The properties have become notorious for being left in deteriorating or dangerous condition, with renters housed in apartments where landlords are unable or unwilling to conduct maintenance.

While the government’s initial bill introduced in April was meant to offer a way out of these issues, it garnered heavy criticism from political parties and tenants, who worry that the steps stated in the bill would lead to the mass eviction of millions and a sudden, extreme hike in rents.

The new amendments, which were sent to the House for discussion last week, were meant as a step from the government to respond to the critics' concerns, extending the grace period before evictions, and altering the rate of rent hikes according to the neighborhood. 

But for Shamy, the new amendments were not enough to rid renters of the fear of mass evictions.

And the accompanying security crackdown further belies the state’s sincere attempt to respond to criticism, Shamy added. 

During the Friday meeting, security personnel surrounded the building and prevented dozens of people from going up into the building, according to Shamy.

But this is not the first time the association has faced obstructions.

The Tenants Association and the leftist parties of the Popular Front for Social Justice held a mass meeting last month to discuss the tenants’ opposition to the earlier draft of the bill. According to Shamy, security agencies contacted the organizers after the meeting, objecting to the large crowd that had gathered at the time, which left dozens of participants standing in the street due to the insufficient space. 

He added that the organizers of last week’s meeting tried to reserve a larger hall to accommodate all attendees and prevent crowding outside. Although several venues had indeed welcomed them, the matter ended with “security refusal,” he said.

Shamy believes that blocking the association’s ability to hold conferences demonstrates the state's desire to pass the revised bill as quickly as possible, as well as its clear bias in favor of landlords, who he said were able to hold two conferences at the AlMasa Hotel to discuss the bill without encountering any obstacles.

Bias in favor of new landlords and the real estate market at the expense of tenants is evident in the new version of the draft legislation itself, according to Shamy.

Last week, the government submitted a new version of the bill to the House. The committee discussing the new draft approved it, and it awaits presentation to the House’s general assembly. 

One of the most contentious points in the original bill was the five-year transition period and its terms. Rents would have risen twenty-fold upon the law’s enactment, followed by annual 15 percent increases until contracts are deregulated at the end of the period.

The revised version extends the transition period for residential units to seven years. Once these terms expire, all leases will be deregulated and governed by civil law.

A three-tier rent increase system for residential properties has also been introduced by the new bill. Rent for high-end units will rise twentyfold, at a minimum of LE1,000. For mid-range and economic units, rents will increase tenfold, with minimums set at LE400 and LE250, respectively. 

To implement this system, the bill establishes survey committees in each governorate. These committees will have three months from the law’s enactment to classify “old rent” properties into the three tiers — premium, mid-range and economic — based on criteria such as location, building condition, infrastructure, road access, transportation availability and nearby services.

But according to Shamy, the new changes did not eliminate the threat of eviction of hundreds of thousands of people from their homes and businesses if they cannot afford the massive rent raises, nor did they recognize the millions of pounds the tenants spent over decades on renovating and maintaining the properties.

The government submitted its first draft in April to comply with a 2024 Constitutional Court ruling that found the bundle of rent control laws issued between 1920 and 1981, commonly referred to as “old rent laws,” in violation of private contracts, which, the court ruled, should be governed solely by civil law. 

Over 1.6 million families currently live in homes governed by the old rent control system, according to the Built Environment Observatory, which cites 2017 census data from the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics. 

But the initial draft, intended to propose a phased transition toward deregulation to “avoid a legal vacuum,” sparked concern among renters, many of whom say they have invested heavily in the upkeep of properties they've lived in for decades. Some warned the bill could leave vulnerable residents without shelter. 

During two days of parliamentary meetings in May as part of a “social dialogue” on the April proposal, tenants called for limiting reforms to rent increases or to grant a portion of the property’s value to renters who agree to vacate. Many also urged lawmakers to adhere to the Constitutional Court ruling to cap lease inheritance at one generation — instead of the few years proposed for the transition. 

Landlords, by contrast, pushed for a shorter transition period of three years instead of five, along with rent hikes that reflect market rates in the same area in which they own the property.

MP Mostafa Baky described the first proposal as a “fireball thrown into Parliament’s lap,” with others warning that if rushed through, it could provoke public backlash against the House and unleash social unrest as it may lead to mass evictions.

The revised proposal expands legal grounds for eviction. Landlords will be permitted to evict tenants who have left the property unoccupied for over a year without a valid reason or those who own another unit — residential or otherwise — that could serve the same purpose as the rented one.

During earlier discussions, Housing Minister Sherif al-Sherbiny assured MPs that no citizen would be left without shelter, and that rental deregulation would only proceed once alternative state housing is made available, prioritizing tenants in accordance with the draft law.