Before leaving Cuba, I “sold” my house

PUERTO PADRE, Cuba.- Which constellation, as if trying to fix an image of stars in a hazy sky, we have seen these days parading on national television and in the foreign press accredited in Havana, a lieutenant colonel, a colonel and a first colonel of the Ministry of the Interior, all speaking about the immigration bill and some, at least two of them, denying that the condition of emigration invalidates the ownership of a home or the right to inherit it, well, since Since 2013 or something like that, no Cuban has been deprived of a car or a house for having gone to live outside their country, that’s what the bosses say.

But, unlike the colonels, the Cubans who juggle to avoid losing what legitimately belongs to them say something else; losses that occur when they permanently leave Cuba. See this example. Concerned, a woman I have known for many years told me just the day before yesterday, “Alberto, I want to ask you a question.”

The question was related to her brother, who owns a home in Cuba, but who, due to the humanitarian parole procedure and having fulfilled all the requirements, is now imminent to leave for the United States. And the question of that woman was: “What can my brother do to not lose the house?”

The General Housing Law

And her question and her brother’s concern have a thorny legal basis: “The permanent residence home, whose owner has definitively left the country, is confiscated by the State in order to transfer its ownership to the persons who have the right to it, in accordance with the provisions of this law,” says article 81.1 of the current Law No. 65, General Housing Law, of December 23, 1988, but which has been the subject of successive modifications through decree-laws from 1998 to the present.

And, I repeat the question of the worried lady: “What can my brother do to avoid losing the house?”

As we explained in the article Notes from the drawer: migration and property rights in Cubaconcerning a house, the Housing authorities will not intervene until the Immigration officials declare that the person has definitively left the country, which according to current terms, is two years from the date of departure, suspended by the extensions granted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the deadlines, or more properly, the concepts by which a Cuban will be labeled as an emigrant, will change with the new law, so people in this situation will have to act today, although without ceasing to observe what is to come.

And to get rid of what is stated in the aforementioned article 81.1, that is, that the house of someone who “has left the country permanently” is “confiscated by the State” for the purpose of “transferring its ownership to the persons who have the right”, which are the relatives of the emigrant or some other person in possession of the house, at least five years previously, Cubans who emigrate usually say: Before leaving Cuba, I “sold” my house.