Cabinet to meet over one month rent charge

The Deputy Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing, Sampson Ahi, has said that a final report from the Ministry on a new rent bill will be put before cabinet in two weeks.

According to Sampson Ahi, following a successful meeting with stakeholders, the report is ready to be presented to cabinet from where it will be forwarded to Parliament for approval.

“After the stakeholders meeting at Dodowa, the final report has been presented to us last week, so we are working towards putting a memo on it and submitting it to cabinet,” he said.

“I think that in two weeks time, we should forward it to cabinet for them to consider and then it will be brought before Parliament for consideration and approval. Cabinet will also make an input and whatever they suggest might be taken on board. When it gets to parliament, they will also do a stakeholders’ consultation to ascertain what Ghanaians want so that it will also be taken on board”

Sampson Ahi revealed that during discussions on the conditions in the bill, they faced some level of opposition from industry players who believed that one month rent advance would not be fair given the amount of money spent by the landlords on putting up houses.

“We in the Ministry believe that we should do one month [rent advance] with 3 months security deposit, so that the landlord can fall on it in case a tenant defaults. But the industry players believe the 6-months should be maintained because of how much it cost the landlords to construct the houses. We are trying to fine-tune it,” he explained.

Sampson Ahi stated that, the new rent law will be beneficial to Ghanaians as it will stabilize the rent system and address potential conflicts between landlords and tenants in the country when it is passed.

“All over the world, people don’t pay more than 6 months advance in their rent. In the US, it’s done on monthly basis with security deposits, it’s the same in Europe and Canada. It’s only in Ghana that people take so much in advance,” he said.

“It is something we need to do as a nation in order to address some of the imbalances that erupts between landlords and tenants. We need it. The law will introduce sanity into the rent industry.”

Rent Control likely to set rent charges

The Rent Control Department has also hinted it may set rent charges once the new rent law is introduced. According to the department, the move is to check the over exploitation of prospective tenants by owners of properties.

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