المملكة: Up to 20% of the fine. Approval of controls for rewards for those reporting rental violations
Adopted Ministry of Municipalities and Housing Controls for disbursing incentive rewards to those who report violations of the statutory provisions for controlling the relationship between landlord and tenant, with the aim of enhancing compliance and raising the level of transparency in the rental market, and stimulating reporting of violations affecting the contractual relationship between the two parties.
The controls stipulate that an incentive reward is granted to whistleblowers when specific conditions are met, most notably that the report leads to the detection of the violation, and that the whistleblower must not be a partner in it or have obtained The information must be obtained through irregular means, and the violation must not have been previously detected by the competent authority, in addition to the absence of a first-degree kinship between the informant and the inspector responsible for control, with the requirement that a final decision be issued proving the violation and collecting the fine.
Financial Reward
The controls allow granting a reward not exceeding 20% of the value of the fine collected, according to the discretion of the competent committee, with the possibility of dividing it among the informants. In the event that they are multiple and it is not possible to determine the percentage of contribution of each of them, provided that the total rewards do not exceed the maximum limit set for a single violation, with entitlement limited to the reported violation only.
The controls set three main criteria for calculating reward entitlement points, the most important of which is the importance of the violation criterion, as the seriousness of the violation is evaluated with points ranging between two and four points.
The highest rating is given to violations related to raising the value of the total rent for a residential or commercial property. In violation of the regulations, as well as the landlord’s refusal in the city of Riyadh to renew the contract and oblige the tenant to vacate in irregular cases.
Three points are also given if the rent for the vacant property increases over the last lease contract, and two points are given if the landlord does not register the unregistered contract in the electronic network for rental services.
The second criterion includes the adequacy of the report data, as two points are given to reports that are not supported by evidence, and three points are given to reports accompanied by evidence explaining the violation, Up to four points in cases where the entity’s inspectors are unable to discover the violation without the whistleblower’s contribution.
As for the third criterion, it relates to the value of the financial fine, as four points are awarded if the fine is less than 50 thousand riyals, three points for fines between 50 and 100 thousand riyals, and two points for fines between 100 and 500 thousand riyals, while one point is given for fines that exceed 500 thousand riyals.
The final points for the violation are totaled to a maximum of 12 points, and the reward percentage is determined based on the total points, ranging between 5% and 20% of the fine collected, according to criteria that take into account the importance of the violation, the quality of the report, and the size of the fine.
The controls stressed the exclusion of any whistleblower proven to be late in reporting for the purpose of benefiting from the continuation of the violation, while granting the competent authority the right to recover the reward if this is proven later, and limiting entitlement to the fine resulting from Reported violations only.
The Ministry confirmed that these controls come within an integrated regulatory system aimed at supporting compliance in the rental market, and enabling those reporting them to contribute to uncovering violations, in a way that enhances justice and limits violations in the relationship between landlord and tenant.
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