Ease housing loan payments call

TDT | Manama

A group of Bahraini MPs have recently called to drop all housing loans commitments from the relatives of citizens who have passed away, TDT has learnt. The lawmakers submitted a proposal with the aim of amending the current mechanism implemented by Housing Ministry, which exempts relatives of deceased beneficiaries of government housing services from paying all financial obligations owed by the deceased to the ministry, in two conditions only.

According to the MPs, these conditions include the exemption of the deceased’s family if they are a family consisting of a widow and orphans (one or more minors), and if the deceased leaves behind one or more minors. The MPs said that “in other conditions, the family is obligated to pay the amounts related to the housing services received by their deceased breadwinner”.

Spearheaded by the Council of Representatives’ Public Utilities and Environment Committee chairman Hamad Al Kooheji, the group of MPs also include Zainab Abdulameer, Ammar Qambar, Ali Ishaqi and Ahmed Al Damistani.

Al Kooheji explained in a press statement issued on Sunday that the proposal aims to lighten the financial burdens of Bahraini families and include all family members and conditions in the exemption. Clarifying further, Al Kooheji said: “Failure to exempt the family of the deceased beneficiary from a housing service from the rest of the sums they owe the ministry leads to adding new financial burdens on the family.

This is burdensome for them, especially since they have other financial and family obligations. “The whole world today is living in an economic circumstance that does not allow the addition of new financial burdens, which citizens with limited income cannot afford.”

Al Kooheji pointed out that the current mechanism creates “a state of unjustified discrimination between the forms of Bahraini families”, adding that the currently-enforced Article 77 of Resolution 909 of 2015— with regards to the housing system—only mentioned two conditions that are exempted, while the rest of the families are excluded to bear the remaining installments “without legal or logical justification”.

The legislator also said that the proposal comes to secure the cohesion of Bahraini families after the demise of their breadwinner, stating that bearing the burden of paying the remaining installments hinders families’ interests and deprives them from applying for new housing services from the ministry.

Justifying the proposal further, Al Kooheji quoted Article 5 of the Kingdom’s constitution, saying: “The family is the cornerstone of society, deriving its strength from religion, morality and patriotism. “The law preserves its lawful entity, strengthens its bonds and values, under its aegis extends protection to mothers and children, tends the young and protects them from exploitation and safeguards them against moral, bodily and spiritual neglect.”