A new rent bill the government is putting together will make tenants pay between one month to a year’s rent advance instead of the initial six-months in the current rent law.
In an interview with Accra-based Citi FM, Chief Rent Control Officer at the Rent Control Department, Twum Ampofo said the sector Minister is working to ensure the bill is presented before Parliament soon.
“The rent advance at the moment is supposed to be six months and the new law hoping to be passed sooner or later is actually giving us a year. We have prepared the one year advance supposed to be paid by tenants. It starts from one month to one year.”
He added that they considered the challenges landlords face before making the review.
“This is because of the conflict between the landlords and the tenants. At times the problem is that tenants are supposed to pay between one month to six months, but because of the deficit of the accommodation in this country, some people have developed their premises with the help of the estate developers. They’ve gone in for loans to build these kinds of houses for rent.”
“…So when we ask them to take one month, the one month [amount] will not help them to pay off the loans given to them…we have come to realize that it is an inconvenience for landlords. [Also] One month or three months’ rent cannot help landlords to renovate their properties. So we have taken into consideration that one year rent will resolve the matter of paying advance to help the landlords to restructure their properties,” he added.
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The existing law, ACT 1963, tenants are expected to pay between 1-6 months advance rent. However, most landlords demand 2 years or more rent advance.
Many tenants have complained about this issue coupled with the fact that they have to deal with agents as well.