The Rent Control Department has expressed concern about arbitrary rent increases and threatened action against landlords acting outside the law.
Mr. Ishmael Essien, the Asante Akim Central Municipal Manager, said any upward rent adjustment could only be done with the approval of the Department.
Anything short of that, he indicated was a breach of the law and completely unacceptable.
He was addressing a day’s workshop on the “Rent Regulation Act” held in Konongo for property owners and tenants in the municipality.
“Bridging the gap between landlords and tenants in rent issues – the role of the Rent Control Department”, was the theme and the goal was to help deepen public understanding of the rent law.
It comes amid growing complaints by tenants of flagrant disregard for the rent control regulation.
Many property owners reportedly are taking advantage of the high demand for accommodation to ask for outrageous rent charges.
Mr. Essien said it was important for everybody to become abreast of the rent law and to act together to ensure that it was upheld and respected.
He urged tenants to ask to be given rent cards by landlords – containing details of the tenancy agreement between the two parties.
The card, by law, must be issued seven clear days after giving out a room or apartment for rent.
He spoke of the launch of a “door-to-door education campaign” to help the people to know everything they have to know about the rent control regulation to get everybody to act appropriately.
Source: GNA
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I am surprised to read this. Do we still have Rent Control Department in Ghana? If they exist, have they bothered to find out how Government Agencies are renting building in dollars? They should give us a break. Haahaaahaaaaaaa!!!!
Oh miserable mr. manager, you only comes from nowhere to control prices of rent but you don't control building materials why?
Mr Manager, this statement is from the mouth of babies. The problem is demand and supply. How many bungalows has the government provided for Ghanaians? If they are readily available who would waste their time on these landlords?
I thought price control died with the death of the 31st December ***barred word***. Property renting is like any other good or services offered on the market.The price is determined by supply and demand. So trying to set a price outside the interplay of the forces of demand and supply will be an exercise in futility. The DCE should rather spend the money sent to the assembly from the government in constructing just a 100 or 200 rental units for workers in the municipality and see how it would drag the price of rent down in his area. This Kwame Nkrumah socialist policy of rent control will have to be expunged from the law books to allow for the forces of demand and supply to determine price so that we can attract investment in the rental sub-sector of the real estate business in the country.