Is parliament about to change the old-rent law again?

Also asked as: “Old rent law amendment Lebanon parliament 2026” · “Is there a new old-rent law in Lebanon?” · “What is in the Kaakour rent bill?” · “Is the Administration and Justice Committee changing the old rent law?”

What the committee is studying#

At its session on 13 October 2026, several MPs on the Administration and Justice Committee asked for objective criteria in the old-rent drafts. They wanted contracts made before 1992 treated differently from later ones, and rent increases worked out from housing indicators and precise equations. The committee took no decision and agreed to continue the following week^[1]. We have not seen a report of that later session.

We have not seen the texts of the two drafts either, and no source says whether they are the bills filed in February 2026, described below. So nobody outside the committee can tell you yet what a new law would say or when it would apply.

The two bills filed in February 2026#

On 25 February 2026, MP Halima Kaakour and four other MPs (Ali Hassan Khalil, Nadim Gemayel, Osama Saad and Yassine Yassine) filed an urgent bill to amend the old residential rent law^[5,6]. According to Public Works Studio, it would extend leases year by year and raise rents gradually, by an inflation correction plus an addition linked to the flat's area. It would also tie the right to stay to the tenant's legitimate need, protect the elderly and retirees, and treat pre-1992 and later owners differently.

A second bill filed the same day covers new leases^[5]. It would allow a yearly rent adjustment by a new housing-cost index, protect tenants from arbitrary increases and raise the minimum lease term from 3 to 5 years (proposed). No source reports it adopted. Two law firms say the minimum now is three years^[5,11,12], though they rest that on different legal grounds; see the three-year minimum for a new lease.

What applies while parliament studies#

Until a new law is passed, the current one governs. Tenants who do not benefit from the Fund had a nine-year extension that ended on 28 February 2026^[4,7,10]. That is the date the Metn appeals court and Annahar use; a landlords' adviser counts to 27 February, and Public Works Studio argues the end moved to 2 March. Fund beneficiaries get twelve years, to 28 February 2029^[4,10,13], although who counts as a beneficiary is unsettled while the Fund has never come into operation^[1,3,4,13]. More in what happened to old-rent tenants after February 2026 and whether the Fund is working.

Meanwhile courts are deciding cases under the current law. On 10 June 2026^[7,8], the Metn rental-disputes chamber of the Mount Lebanon civil appeals court upheld an eviction. It held that the tenant still had to meet the Art. 8 and Art. 16 deadlines even though the Fund is not working. The end of the extension does not remove a tenant by itself: landlords have gone to court for eviction orders^[7,10,14]. See whether a landlord can evict an old-rent tenant now.

In July 2026 Parliament passed a separate law pausing legal and contractual deadlines from 1 March to 31 July 2026^[15,16,17]. Whether it helps old-rent tenants is disputed. A landlords' adviser says the nine years ended before 1 March, and the head of the Lebanese Real Estate Association says the pause only stops the clock and does not amend the rent law. Public Works Studio argues it may help, and a tenants' lawyer argues force majeure since October 2023^{[15,16,17,18]}. Details in the 2026 deadline-suspension law.