National Tenants Association of Ghana otherwise known as NATAG is an umbrella organisation representing tenants in Ghana. Our mission is to assist tenants through education, legal information and lobbying for tenants legislation especially affordable housing and tenants rights. It is disappointing and regrettable to hear that, since 1983, our Housing Policy as a country has been at the draft stage without any seriousness attached to it. A situation that has brought untold hardship to the poor who are not fortunate to build houses on their own, but have to depend on Landlaords to lay their heads. In Ghana today, we have a housing deficit of 1.6million which experts have predicted that, it is likely to double in the next 10 years, meaning that if the trend still continues, we would have a housing deficit of 3.6 million by 2022. Considering the population growth of the country on an annual basis, we have to produce 160,000 housing unit as a country. But currently,with the combined efforts of the State Housing Corporation(SHC) and other private entities, we are able to produce 45,000 only, resulting in a deficit of 115,000 units annually. This phenomenom has brought about a situation where demand for housing and accommodation outstrip supply, naturally raising the rent cost in our communities. As an advocacy group, championing the course of tenants, we believe that housing is a right and poverty or inability to pay for a sleeping space should not render a person or group of persons homeless. Since 1963 when the rent Act,(Act 220) was passed into law,the Rent Control Department of Ghana responsible for seeing to the full implementation of the law has not been given the neccessary support to function as spelt out in the law. According to the Chief Rent Officer at the Rent Control Department, Mr Addo Soin Dombo, certain clauses in the law need some amendments and additions to make it more functionable and applicable in today’s world. The Rent Control Department has since 2010 been pushing for the amendments of the Act, and for two(2) years now,it has been on the Desk of the Hon.Minister of Housing,Works and Water Resources with no seriousness or attention given to it.This, to us demonstrates the insensitivity on the part of Government to the plight of the poor and the low income house renters in this country of ours. The weakness and the shallowness of the Act has made the Rent Control Department a ‘toothless bull dog that cannot bite’, thereby leaving the poor renters at the mercy of atrocious Landlords who are not in any way ready to compromise with tenants in case of any misunderstanding(s) between the two. Despite incessant plea and requests from the Rent Control Department to the Ministry of Housing, Works, Water and Resources to organise final Stakeholders Meetings across the country towards the review of the Rent Act, the Rent Control Department had not been given the needed financial support by the Ministry to enable it collect the necessary inputs from the stakeholders towards the review of the Act . This clearly demonstrates government unwillingness to review the Rent Act, which to us, will make the Rent Control Department effective and efficient. Today,tenants are made to pay between 1-3years rent advance which is in contradiction to the Rent Act. According to the law, taking rent advance beyond six months is a violation of the rent Act, but yet, home owners do it with impunity all because the government does not have the political will to procecute landlords who abuse the law due to their unpreparedness to empower the Rent Control to undertake their constituional and legally mandated duties captured in the law. The law is not working because of the failure on the part of government to resource the Rent Control Department to work. It is surprising to hear that the entire Rent Control Department has only two vehichles which ply throughout the 10 regions and the question is, is the Government not aware of these problems?. The worse of it all is that, the approved and allocated funds for the Rent Control Department in the 2012 budget submitted by the Housing Ministry has still not been released to the Department as at today. According to the Rent Control Department, about 10,000 cases are reported annually, and without strong staff base, it is certainly impossible to work effectively. Many attempts according to the Department to recruit more staff to enhance their effeiciency has fallen on deaf ears by the Ministry. This shows that, the Housing Minstry is either not interested in the work of the Rent Control Department any more or has lost absolute confidence in that arm of the Ministry. The NATAG and the good people of Ghana need urgent answers the mind bogling questions. Based on the above analysis, we humbly call on the government to treat the Rent Control Department with all the importance it deserves, to allow it to meet the challenges at hand. It is regrettable to know that, majority of our low income earners use their mearger salaries to pay for their rents, living nothing on them to feed and fend for their families. In most cases, those who do not and cannot afford the high rent charges resort to banks for loans at a very high interest rate. Due to the high interest on the loans, it takes some 3 years or more to pay off the loans contracted and by the time they are through with the payment their rents have expired.This to us is highly unfair to the Ghanaian tenants. The interferance of the Housing Ministry in the work of the Rent Control Department significantly affects their operations and we would suggest that the Rent Control Department is decoupled from the Housing Ministry and made an autonomous body to work effectively. We are also very much worried about the state of our Housing policy which has since the year 1983 being in the draft stage without no efforts been made by Government but are only told cooked stories to flatter and deceive the good people of Ghana. We wonder why Governments of the Republic since 1970s have intentionally refused to present a decent housing policy which many developing countries have used to improve the lives of their citizens. We see this move by Government and authorities after 1960’s to date to have a misplaced priority on their part and as an orchestrated attempt to deny poor Ghanaians of their rights to affordable housing at the benefit of few who has the resources to build on their own and charge exorbitant fees to enrich themselves and their families. We will not rest until we see a housing policy by government that will address the housing needs of the poor and low income earners who find it very difficult to cope with the high rent charges by homeowners. NATAG wish to emphatically state that if the Government is unable to shelter Ghanaians they should safe guard and strengthen the law which they have absolute control over to protect the unprotected, in this case the Ghanaian Tenants.
Posted on: Thu, 10 Oct 2013 10:43:34 +0000
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