PROSECUTE LANDLORDS WHO FLOUT SECTION 25 (5) OF THE RENT ACT

                                                                                                                                                                                                                

  PRESS RELEASE                                                                                             DATE: 15^th MAY, 2016

  THE NEWS EDITOR,

  PROSECUTE LANDLORDS WHO FLOUT SECTION 25 (5) OF   THE RENT ACT                                                              

ABOUT US

The National Tenants Union of Ghana, NATUG, is grass roots community-based tenants’ association working for the collective good of its members dotted across the country. We assist tenants through education and provision of legal information; searching and identifying affordable properties for our members to rent, and lobby policy makers to formulate and implement housing policies that will benefit of our members across the country, who are more than 10 million in population.

As a group, we believe all tenants have rights to affordable, decent housing free from excessive and frequent rent increases.

-          We, seek to end all arbitrary evictions and all retaliatory actions against tenants

-          We believe that all people should have access to housing from discrimination based on race, colour, creed, National origin, religion, sexual orientation, political ideology, age, family status, and marital status, amount of income or disability.

 THE NEED FOR  IMMEDIATE REVIEW OF THE RENT ACT

It is regrettable to note that, day in and day out, the rent law of the republic is blatantly abused and breached by property owners and the few wealthy individuals who own apartments in the country with impunity. Upon, several calls, by the public and sate institutions including the LAW REVIEW COMMISSION (LRC) for the past 10 years to review the rent law, the call has fallen in deaf ears with several pockets excuses from the Government and its agencies mandated under the rent laws, to be precise, The rent control Department without any justifiable reasons.

It took the Nation over 32 years to arrive at a comprehensive National Housing Policy which came into being March, 2015. We, therefore, would not be surprise if the report of a newly supposedly validated draft bill of the Rent Law by the Rent Control Department to be sent to Parliament for approval and subsequently, passed into Law will not be a spin and a political gimmick, or better still not taking us 20 more years to come to fruition.

For over 2 decades now, the rent control department has continuously alleged that their inefficiencies and lack of capacity to go about their duties as enshrined in the 1963 and PNDC Law, 138, 1986 rent laws is as a results of the lack interests and seriousness on the part of the Housing Ministry to support and provide them with the necessary resources and accoutrements to be task worthy.

DEFICIENCIES OF THE RENT CONTROL DEPARTMENT

According to the Rent Control Department, all districts in the country should have offices to work from; but, the reality according to the Department is that no resources whatsoever come their way as an institution. The Chief Rent Officer, on many platforms has indicated that the Department is severely under resourced and lamented that in 2012 their Subvention from the Housing Ministry’s annual budget came in the last quarter of that year.

He has also confessed that the Rent Control Department has only one vehicle and even with that, is rickety and could breakdown any time soon. The Department does not have even computer to do their work and no offices to work from, as a results, his personal office has now turned into “Rent Court” where tenants and Landlords queue every morning to have an issue resolved.

RENT OFFENSE

currently, the rent law under section 25( 5) “offenses” of the Rent act, Act 220, 1963 was amended by section 19(2) of the Rent control law, ( 1986), P.N.D.C.L 138; thus:

“ANY PERSON WHO AS A CONDITION OF THE GRANT, RENEWAL OR CONTINUANCE OF A TENANCY DEMANDS IN THE CASE OF MONTHLY OR SHORTER TENANCY, THE PAYMENT IN ADVANCE OF MORE THAN A MONTH’S RENT OR IN THE CASE OF TENANCY EXCEEDING SIX MONTHS, THE PAYMENT IN ADVANCE OF MORE THAN SIX MONTHS RENT SHALL BE GUILTY OF AN OFFENSE AND SHALL UPON CONVICTION BY THE APPROPRIATE RENT MAGISTRATE BE LIABLE TO A FINE NOT EXCEEDING 100 POUNDS OR IN DEFAULT IMPRISONMENT TERM NOT EXCEEDING 2 YEARS.”

From the above, clearly, you could see that all landlords who demand rent exceeding the above mentioned by six months advance, have breached the law. The ultimate goal of the Act, Act 220, was largely to protect tenants from unlawful ejections, arbitrarily rent increments, just to mention a few.

 The continuous flouts of the law with impunity further impoverish the low income population of the larger Ghanaian population tenants who are more than 9 million citizens that, we, as Tenants Association represents.

The above clause in the Law, reveals multifaceted questions that should immediately spark a debate in the country to determine whether our Hon.  Parliamentarians are in breach of the laws or not. 

PARLIAMENTARIANS AND GOVERNMENT, (EXECUTIVES), IN BREACH OF THE RENT LAW

At the beginning of their term in office in 2013, all parliamentarians were paid GHC50, 000 each to take charge of their Rent and Accommodation for the four- year term in parliament. In this case, they were paid by government without any recourse and recognition to the outstanding law governing Rent.  The question is that, is the above payment to them by Government justifiable under the law?  

We demand   proper investigations to ascertain how much they pay in advance as rents.

Are their rents paid in every six months as prescribed by the rent laws?

 PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS AND OFFICERS IN BREACH OF THE RENT LAW

Not, too long ago, it came to light that, the immediate past CHRAJ BOSS, was paying  her rents in Dollars, and even, more than the six months stipulated by the law. In principle and by law, she should have been jailed for committing that offense under section 25(5) of the Rents Act, and Section (19) 2 of the P.N.D.C. L 138, 1986. But, because of the scratch my back, I scrap your back, she was left off the hook after breaching the law. What lessons are the landlords taken from this act by the Executives and high profile persons in authority?  Are we not all equal before the law? I leave for the public to answer to it.

RECOMMENDATIONS

We, humbly recommend that, with immediate effect, the Government and the Rent Control Department should take all remedial steps necessary to Identify, prosecute and arrest all landlords and property owners who breach the law by charging and demanding rents advance more than the six months.

We further Recommend that, a special task force should by constituted by the Housing Ministry and the Rents Control Department respectively, to  move from house to house to apprehend landlords who take advantage of the demand for shelter at the detriment of the poor tenants to unholy enrich themselves and skim the cream from the tenants.

 FREDERICK OPOKU

 AG. SECRETARY – GENERAL,

 NATIONAL TENANTS UNION OF GHANA