Western Regional Office of Rent Control records 585 cases, 65 in court

Takoradi-Ghana, Nov. 13, GNA – Mr Philip Skido Deh, the Principal Rent Officer of the Western Regional Rent Control Department, has encouraged landlords and tenants to uphold the judgement of the department, for peace.
That peace, he said, would even survive after the tenant had left occupancy.
Often, judgement by the department raises a lot of quarrels and exchange of words among affected parties, but the Principal Rent Officer describes it as normal human behaviour and insisted that such parties “uphold the judgement of the Department.”
He told the Ghana News Agency that: “you know after judgement…the affected party becomes aggrieved, and I am even surprised they leave the office together and begin to fight on the way home…this is a practice that must stop.”
He continued: “We are here to use the law and not what a tenant or a landowner feels should be the case.”
The Rent Control Department, he noted, handled 585 cases within the year under review with 65 referred to court for redress.
The Principal Executive Officer of the Rent Control Department urged both parties to have a formal agreement to guide their tenancy and the Rent card to record all payments, which often became the point of contention in rent cases.
The issues recorded bothered on payment of Rent advance associated with harassment, inducement by landowners through disconnection of lights and taps, rent arrears and recovery of possessions among others.
Mr. Deh entreated parties in rent cases to exercise the highest form of restraints to avoid a soiled relationship.