The National Tenants Union of Ghana (NATUG) has charged the citizenry to put pressure on parliamentarians for them to pass the Rent Bill into law.
According to the union, landlords and landladies are disregarding the laws guiding rent bills to extort exorbitant amounts from tenants and businesses, making it unbearable for businesses to thrive.
Speaking in an interview with Max Morning Dew in Accra on Tuesday, Frederick Opoku, the General Secretary of NATUG, stated that the Rent Act, 1963, prohibits demand for rent advance payments exceeding six months, but the Rent Control Department has failed to ensure compliance, allowing landlords to manipulate tenants.
This, he said, had created lots of hardship in the system as tenants’ salaries were now going into house rent, which many house owners charged for two years.
Opoku noted that the time has come for Parliament to prioritize and fast-track the Rent Bill before the country conducts the upcoming elections, just like the seriousness attached to the passage of the LGBTQ+ bill.
“Just like the country laws regulate driving without considering the car owner, the same way the law should regulate renting without considering the one whose money went into the building. The fact that you want to commercialize your house means that the government has to regulate it so that it will not flout the country’s laws pertaining to renting,” he added.
Opoku insisted that the disregard for the rent bill has plunged tenants into poverty and hindered the growth of indigenous businesses; thus, it underscored the need for parliament to take action to address the high cost of rent and difficulties faced by tenants and indigenous businesses.
He therefore called on constituents in all 276 constituencies to petition their Members of Parliament to prioritize the passage of the Rent Bill, considering “it a social contract upon which their mandate will be renewed on December 7, 2024.”
Source: Ghana/MaxTV/MaxFM/max.com.gh/Joyceline Natally Cudjoe
