Brong Ahafo Rent Control Unit received 500 complaints in 2011 – Official

Mr. Abubakar Soalihu, Brong-Ahafo Regional rent officer has advised landlords and tenants to tolerate each other for a harmonious co-existence.

Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Sunyani on Monday, he stressed that landlords and tenants must always try to settle their differences amicably since they needed each other.

“If cases are found to be beyond their control to settle, they should quickly report to the appropriate quarters for redress and not to attack each other”, he said.

He said last year the unit received more than 500 complaints from both tenants and landlords and these included recovery of possessions, inducing tenants to quit, denying tenants of the use of basic facilities, casting insinuations and arbitrary increase in rent.

Mr Soalihu noted with regret that a lot of cases were not reported “because some people are not aware of rent control laws”.

“We are trying to use the media to educate the general public to become abreast with rent laws so their rights would not be trampled upon”, he said.

The regional rent officer noted there was a lot of pressure on tenants, some of whom always relied on loans before being able to renew or pay for their rents.

He advised landlords to ensure all tenants possessed rent cards, filled with their particulars including place of work to avoid giving shelter to criminals.

Mr Soalihu said a large percentage of cases reported were settled by the office but in few cases where one side took an entrenched position the case was referred to the law court.

He advocated for the enforcement of the rent law that demands a landlord to pay eight percent of rent paid by a tenant to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

He said the IRS should empower the rent control office to trace and collect such percentage from landlords for development, adding that landlords had abused the law because the authorities to ensure its enforcement are themselves guilty of the law.
Source: GNA