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PHILIPSBURG--A proposal to appoint members of St. Maarten Rent Committee retroactively by Country Decree (Landsbesluit) has been approved by Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI Marcel Gumbs and the decree was forwarded to Governor Eugene Holiday for signing on June 22, according to VROMI Secretary-General Louis Brown, who answered questions posed by The Daily Herald about the topic.
Attorney-at-Law Joeri Essed of law firm BZSE pointed out on Thursday an interesting quirk in the law whereby Rent Committee decisions since 10-10-10 could be deemed voidable because none of the committee members had been appointed by Country Decree. This was published in this newspaper on Friday.
Essed cited a recent case in which the Court of First Instance, in its capacity of appellate court for decisions taken by the Rent Committee, had nullified a committee decision following an appeal by a tenant against his landlord. The Rent Committee had sided with a landlord who wanted to terminate a lease agreement for a residential property so that he could use it himself.
The tenant successfully argued that the Rent Committee could not have taken a valid decision because the members had not been appointed by Country Decree since St. Maarten obtained its present constitutional status. This was required by Article 22 of the Rent Committee Regulation previously and by Article 7: 255 of the Civil Code as of April 1, 2014.
However, the Court noted that in its opinion it was "possible to give retroactive effect to an appointment by Country Decree of the members of the Rent Committee, and that such would validate the decision taken by the invalid/non-existent Rent Committee, provided that none of the parties to such a decision appeals to the invalidity of the decision prior to such a Country Decree taking effect."
"Whether this aforementioned opinion of the Court about the validation of decisions that have been taken previously by a not-legally-appointed Rent Committee is correct seems questionable and at the very least provides food for discussion among legal professionals," Essed had concluded.
