Rome losing 4.5 mn in unpaid rents in centre

(ANSA) - Rome, March 21 - The city of Rome is losing around 4.5 million euros in unpaid rents on properties in the historic centre, a report said on Monday. It said that around 85% of tenants of city apartments and shopkeepers who rent city properties in this area do not pay. The report was prepared by Rome's I Municipio (Borough I) upon request by Extraordinary Commissioner Francesco Paolo Tronca following a scandal on paltry rents paid on many city properties. Rent arrears total 357 million euros overall when taking into account the city's more than 28,000 residential and commercial properties.
    Of these, 574 are located in the historic centre. The report found a wide disparity between personal income or earnings from commercial properties when compared to rents.
    A property where income was 700,000 euros was revealed to have a 220-euro rent, while one with income of more than one million euro had a rent of 380 euros, the report showed.
    "We need to change approach - the public administration can and must have the situation for which it is responsible under control," Tronca said.
    "Today we are discussing a working method. A methodological analysis that allows all individual situations to be monitored.
    I hope the next administration might continue to follow this method because in this way I believe it is possible to have a full picture of all the situations," he added, ahead of city elections in June. The study also identified a number of 'ghost' properties that did not appear in city records, illegal occupations, and rock-bottom rents.
    These included 1.81 euros per month for a flat near Termini station, just over 5 euros per month for one near Campo de' Fiori and 32 euros per month for a flat overlooking the Colosseum.