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Social housing surcharge may include tenant’s and subtenant’s income

ATA/724/1998Court of Justice / Administrative ChamberNov 10, 1998Dismissed

Open source

Extracted by Omnilex

Omnilex summary

The tenant challenged a social-housing surcharge calculation that included both his salary and that of a subtenant who occupied the apartment during most of the relevant period. The court held that the authority was entitled to cumulate the incomes because the tenant remained the leaseholder and the surcharge assessment could not ignore his income. The complaint could not succeed on good-faith grounds; it was characterized as an abuse of rights. The surcharge calculation was therefore upheld.

Omnilex headnote

RLGL.7 al.7; social-housing surcharge and relevant income: in determining the income decisive for a surcharge, the authority may not disregard the leaseholder’s income merely because the dwelling was temporarily left to a third person under subletting. Where the tenant remains the sole contractual holder of the lease, the incomes of the tenant and the subtenant may be cumulated for the purpose of fixing the surcharge, even if the tenant only occupied the premises sporadically during the relevant period. A challenge seeking to exclude the tenant’s income in such circumstances is not protected by good faith and may constitute an abuse of rights.

Full text

Descripteurs

LOGEMENT; SURTAXE; LOGEMENT SOCIAL; MENAGE COMMUN; MODIFICATION(EN GENERAL); REVENU; OBLIGATION D'ANNONCER; SOUS-LOCATION; TPE

Normes

RLGL.7 al.7

Résumé

L'OLS était en droit de cumuler les salaires de l'allocataire et de son sous-locataire afin de fixer la surtaxe due, bien que seul ce dernier occupait les lieux au cours de la période litigieuse, à l'exception de 2 ou 3 nuits par mois. Il n'y avait donc pas lieu de ne retenir que le salaire du sous-locataire. La réclamation de l'allocataire ne peut non seulement pas se fonder sur le principe de la bonne foi; elle est au contraire constitutive d'un abus de droit. Le calcul du revenu déterminant, au regard d'une éventuelle surtaxe, ne peut faire abstraction du revenu du locataire, seul titulaire du bail. Même si celui-ci n'a pas habité dans son logement durant les mois où il l'a prêté à un ami, et même s'il est vraisemblable que c'est ce dernier qui a pris en charge le loyer durant cette période, il convient de prendre en considération les revenus cumulés de ces deux personnes.

Keywords

social housingsurchargeincome calculationsublettinggood faithabuse of rightshouseholdleaseholder

Extracted by Omnilex

Key legal questions extracted by Omnilex

Key legal question

Whether the housing authority could cumulate the tenant’s and subtenant’s income when calculating a social-housing surcharge.

Extracted holding

Yes. The determining income could not disregard the tenant’s income as sole leaseholder, and the authority was entitled to take both incomes into account despite the tenant’s limited presence in the flat.

Extracted reasoning

The tenant remained the sole holder of the lease; the fact that he was absent for most of the relevant months and that the subtenant likely paid the rent did not justify excluding the tenant’s income from the surcharge calculation.

Key legal question

Whether the tenant could rely on good faith to challenge the surcharge calculation.

Extracted holding

No. The complaint could not be based on good faith and was instead an abuse of rights.

Extracted reasoning

The court considered the tenant’s position incompatible with good faith because the request effectively sought to avoid the income-based surcharge by relying on a situation created by subletting.

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