Is my lease old (before 23 July 1992) or new, and why does it matter?

Also asked as: “Old rent vs new rent in Lebanon” · “Is my 1992 lease an old rent?” · “Which rent law applies to my lease?” · “Old lease or new lease in Lebanon”

How to tell which regime your lease is under#

The test is the date the residential lease was signed. Most sources put the cut-off at 23 July 1992. LCPS says only "July 1992" without a day^[1,2,3], and Choueh Law Firm writes "after the 22nd of July 1992"^[5,6,7,8]. If your lease was signed in late July 1992, have a rent lawyer read the contract. At least one news page gives the wrong date of 28 February 1992; the cut-off is in July 1992^[14,15].

Watch the law numbers too. Old leases come from Law 160/92 and new ones from Law 159/92, but the law firms' pages swap the two numbers in places^[5,6,7,8]. Go by the date and ignore the number a landlord or agent quotes.

A lease signed before the cut-off was not always under the old regime. Jaber Law Firm says Law 160/92 does not cover leases of agricultural land, seasonal summer or winter rentals, employee housing under a work contract, villas built after 25 March 1974, state and municipal property, or furnished places classed as touristic^[7].

We found no source on how a renewal, an assignment or a change of tenant after 1992 affects which regime applies. If any of these happened to your lease, ask a rent lawyer one precise question: "Did this create a new contract under Law 159/92, or is it still the original pre-1992 lease?"

Why it matters: old and new leases compared#

The old-lease rows on eviction grounds, succession and subletting come from the 1992 regime. The sources do not say how far these rules still apply alongside the 2014/2017 law, especially after the extension ended. The same is true of the compensation owed when a landlord reclaimed a flat for family use or to rebuild. Jaber Law Firm puts it at 25% to 50% of the property value, Choueh Law Firm at 30% to 50%^[3,6,7]. More in compensation for evicted old-rent tenants.

What the cut-off means in October 2026#

For old leases, the end of the extension is what matters now. The Fund, an account at the Ministry of Finance under Art. 3 of Law 2/2017, has never operated, and the committees that decide who benefits were never formed^[2,4,10,16]. Who counts as a beneficiary, and so who gets twelve years rather than nine, is unsettled^[2,12,16]. See who gets 9 years and who gets 12. The end of the extension does not remove a tenant by itself: landlords have gone to court for eviction orders^[9,11,12]. On 10 June 2026 the Metn appeals court upheld one such eviction^[11,17]. The full picture is in what happens to old-rent tenants after February 2026.

The cut-off may stay central to any new law. At the committee session of 13 October 2026, several MPs asked that the drafts distinguish contracts made before 1992 from later ones^[10]. For new leases, a bill submitted on 25 February 2026 would raise the minimum term from 3 to 5 years (proposed)^[13]. No source reports it adopted. The current rule is explained in the three-year minimum for new leases.