The Housing Minister has said he is planning to cite “helpful” evidence gathered by Scrutiny – published following a controversial decision to postpone a vote on reforms of the island’s residential tenancy legislation – when the matter is debated for a second time next week.

Deputy Sam Mézec also said that the recently-released report by the Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Scrutiny Panel had acknowledged “misinformation” surrounding his proposed changes.

Deputy Mézec’s proposals include plans to stop landlords from raising rent more than once a year, limit rent increases to the rate of inflation (RPI) and cap them at 5%, limit the use of fixed-term tenancies and allow tenants to challenge unfair rent hikes through a new Rent Tribunal.

The principles of the plans were initially debated in July – but States Members backed a procedural move to refer it back to Scrutiny for review, postponing any decision until this month.

Among the arguments for doing so was to give the Panel, which had been reviewing the proposed changes, time to publish its subsequent report.

I believe the evidence that they gathered, independently from me, is helpful to my case

Deputy Sam Mézec

Released last month, the document draws on an evidence-gathering process that garnered over 300 responses, and saw a number of public hearings with Deputy Mézec and various stakeholders such as Caritas Jersey, the Jersey Estate Agents Association and the Jersey Landlords Association.

One of the Panel’s conclusions was that “the Amendment Law and its associated provisions have been misunderstood, misinterpreted and caused significant confusion”.

Pictured: Housing Minister Sam Mézec said the evidence gathered by the Panel was “helpful to my case”.

Speaking to Express, Deputy Mézec said: “The delay motion last time was on the grounds that some Members wanted to see the Scrutiny report.

“That report has now been produced and there is a line in it, which I’m going to highlight, which says there is significant misinformation and confusion around the law and its proposed amendments.”

He continued: “I will be interested to see if that misinformation has been dispelled by the summer recess and the Scrutiny Panel’s report, or whether we will still get Members standing up and completely mischaracterising what the law actually contains.”

Deputy Mézec also said that he thought the Scrutiny Panel “did a very good job of gathering evidence”.

“I believe the evidence that they gathered, independently from me, is helpful to my case,” he added.

“So I’ll cite it, and I’ll draw it to Members’ attention, and I hope that Members will have spent the summer getting over the misinformation that some of them had bought into beforehand.”