ZERP Tenancy Law Project
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no. 290694. TENLAW: Tenancy Law and Housing Policy in Multi-level Europe National Report for HUNGARY Authors: József Hegedüs, Vera Horváth, Nóra Teller, Nóra Tosics Team Leader: József Hegedüs National Supervisor: József Hegedüs Peer reviewers: Jason Dinse, Marja Elsinga, Bianchi Ranieri 1 Table of Content TENLAW: Tenancy Law and Housing Policy in Multi-level Europe. Fehler! Textmarke nicht definiert. 1. Housing Situation ................................................................................................................................................ 4 1.1 General Features................................................................................................................................................ 4 1.2 Historical evolution of the national housing situation and housing policy .................................... 4 1.3 Current situation ............................................................................................................................................... 9 1.4 Types of housing tenures ..............................................................................................................................11 1.5 Other general aspects of the current national housing situation.....................................................18 2. Economic, urban, and social factors .........................................................................................................22 2.1 Current situation of the housing market .................................................................................................22 2.2 Issues of price and affordability .................................................................................................................24 2.3 Tenancy contracts and investment............................................................................................................27 2.4 Other economic factors .................................................................................................................................28 2.5 Effects of the current crisis...........................................................................................................................29 2.6 Urban aspects of the housing situation ....................................................................................................33 2.7 Social aspects of the housing situation .....................................................................................................35 3. Housing policies and related policies ......................................................................................................38 3.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................38 3.2 Governmental actors ......................................................................................................................................41 3.3 Housing policies...............................................................................................................................................43 3.4 Urban policies...................................................................................................................................................49 3.5 Energy policies .................................................................................................................................................52 3.6 Subsidization ....................................................................................................................................................53 3.7 Taxation..............................................................................................................................................................57 4. Regulatory types of rental and intermediate tenures .....................................................................62 4.1 Classifications of different types of regulatory tenures ......................................................................62 4.2 Regulatory types of tenures without a public task ...............................................................................64 4.3 Regulatory types of tenures with a public task......................................................................................69 5. Origins and development of tenancy law ..............................................................................................76 6. Tenancy regulation and its context ..........................................................................................................82 6.1 General introduction ......................................................................................................................................82 6.2 Preparation and negotiation of tenancy contracts ...............................................................................91 6.3 Conclusion of tenancy contracts .................................................................................................................98 6.4 Contents of tenancy contracts .................................................................................................................. 110 o Rights of tenants in relation to a mortgagee (before and after foreclosure) ................................. 136 6.5 Implementation of tenancy contracts .................................................................................................... 136 . in particular changes needed to accommodate a handicap (e.g. building an elevator; ensuring access for wheelchairs etc)?..................................................................................................................................... 147 6.6 Termination of tenancy contracts ........................................................................................................... 150 6.7 Enforcing tenancy contracts ..................................................................................................................... 162 6.8 Tenancy law and procedure “in action” ................................................................................................ 166 7. Analysing the effects of EU law and policies on national tenancy policies and law....... 186 7.1 EU policies and legislation affecting national housing policies ..................................................... 186 7.2 EU policies and legislation affecting national housing law ............................................................. 187 2 7.3 Transposition of EU legislation ................................................................................................................ 188 8. Typical national cases .................................................................................................................................. 196 9. Tables ................................................................................................................................................................... 202 9.1 Literature ........................................................................................................................................................ 202 9.2 Cases (legal cases and interviews).......................................................................................................... 209 9.3 Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................................ 213 Annex 1: Areas of Municipal Regulation ....................................................................................................... 214 Annex 2: Areas of Ministerial Regulation (for stately owned dwellings) ..................................... 215 Annex 3: Ministerial decrees in force with regard to state owned dwellings............................. 216 Annex 4: Criteria for the different degrees of comfort........................................................................... 217 3 1. Housing Situation 1.1 General Features This section presents a general introduction of the housing stock, tenure structure, and general aspects of the housing situation in Hungary. The country’s population of 9.9 million is dispersed in 4.1 million households. The full housing stock consists of 4.4 million housing units; and as some households coexist in the same dwelling, nearly 12% of all dwellings are vacant. The quality of the housing stock has been constantly increasing in the past decades; new constructions on the other hand have slowed down gradually; and nearly vanished after the Great Financial Crisis, and the subsequent recession. The vast majority of housing units are owner-occupied. While 23-24% of the total population lived in rental dwellings in the early 1980s, the current owner occupation rate has risen to 92%, while private rental housing accounts for 4%, public rental for 3%, and ‘other tenure types’ for the remaining 1% of the full housing stock. (CSO, Census 2011) We consider this a distorted tenure structure: the lack of a well-functioning rental sector steers households towards ownership. This is partly a result of the massive privatization of the formerly state owned rental stock in the 1990s, but state backed mortgage subsidies also contributed to the current housing situation. 1.2 Historical evolution of the national housing