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FROM
CUBA
Changes in law restrict inheritance rights
in Cuba
HAVANA, March (Serafín Descalzo
/ www.cubanet.org) - Recent changes in the
General Housing Law relating to wills, in
effect this year, restrict the rights of
legatees.
The changes provide that inheritors who
are not directly related to the deceased
have to solicit an opinion from the municipal
housing authorities as to whether the house
they have inherited should become the property
of the community.
It is expected municipal housing officials
will decide to convert any house with more
than three bedrooms, for instance, into
multi-family lodgings, or put it to some
other use, such as a polyclinic.
The law provides that, in such cases, compensation
be made to the now former owners, in the
form of another house in similar condition
in a different location. Since the replacements
are seldom, if ever, equivalent in size
or condition, housing authorities indemnify
the owners with a sum of money that owners
invariably complain is below the real value
of the house.
Economist Carmelo Mesa Lago calculated
the housing deficit back in 1985 at 880,000
units, and new construction needed to keep
pace with demand by a growing population
and deterioration of existing housing, at
100,000 annually. Yet the latest available
figures for new construction, for 2002,
show 27,460 units were built. Housing worries
remain one of Cubans' most pressing every-day
problems.
Versión
original en español
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