RIYADH — As many as 10,528 insolvent citizens have benefited from the Ministry of Housing's house rent support scheme following the executive courts verdicts against all these persons after they defaulted paying their rent. The beneficiaries of the support program included those who were not able to make payment of their housing installments due to circumstances beyond their control. These were in four specific situations including the household owner's death, imprisonment, sickness, and weak financial capacity. The beneficiaries included 4,697 citizens who could not make the payment during the coronavirus pandemic situation. The ministry's program of "Supporting defaulters on paying rent" is supervised by its Developmental Housing Unit. Only citizens, whose house rent contracts were documented via the Ejar electronic network for rental services, benefited through automatic payment of their defaulted sums. This follows coordination between the Ministry of Housing and the Implementation System of the Ministry of Justice in the case of those against whom enforcement judges issued executive judgments. Under the system, assistance will be provided to distressed segments of citizens within easy electronic procedures after reporting the distressed cases to the Housing Ministry's program from the execution court. Subsequently, a competent committee will determine the type of support that will be provided within a period not exceeding 30 days after being referred from the execution court. The program provides this support to ensure decent life for all citizens by paying the house rent for families who are unable to pay the rent due to death, illness, disability, imprisonment, or limited financial resources of their breadwinners, who have been proven unable to pay and an executive ruling has been issued against them. It is noteworthy that the program was issued by a Cabinet decision to support citizens who are unable to pay the house rent due to circumstances beyond their control within four specific cases, provided that the residential lease contract is documented within the Ejar network. The ministry's housing program aims to offer solutions to enable Saudi households to own or benefit from housing according to their needs and finances. Ejar is an integrated system that aims to develop the housing and real estate sector in the Kingdom in a balanced manner by finding sustainable solutions to the challenges of the real estate market that preserves the rights of all parties involved in the standard contract for residential leasing. The leasing services network is one of the most important solutions designed to organize the relationship between the parties of the leasing process such as tenant, landlord and real estate broker.
