Rent cases reduce in Kumasi

Rent cases in Kumasi, the Ashanti regional capital, are said to be on the decrease, records at the Rent Office have indicated.

Mr. Michael Cobbina, Ashanti Regional Rent Officer, who confirmed the situation to The Ashanti File, said rent cases which had shot up previously in the Ashanti Region had reduced drastically in recent times. The officer said Kumasi was divided into four zones, which are Asokwa, Manhyia, Bantama and Subin. According to him, the Manhyia zone is topping with 1,616 cases in 2012, from 3,205 in 2010, and 1,768 in 201.

He said in the year 2010, the Asokwa zone recorded 2013 cases, 1,263 in 2011, and 1,154 in 2012. Mr. Cobbina said the Bantama zone recorded 2,054 in 2010, while 1212 was recorded in 2011, with 2012 recording 1,116, and the Subin zone recorded 336 in 2010, 233 in 2011, and 368 in 2012.

The Rent Office in Kumasi recorded 1,777 cases for settlement during the first quarter of last year. Mr. Cobbina strongly advised prospective tenants to, as a matter of urgency, enter into tenancy agreements with their landlords, to define the kind of relationship they have for each other, insisting that both tenants and landlords come to his outfit, or seek the assistance of a lawyer for such agreements.

According to him, the non-existence of tenancy agreements between landlords and tenants are the main causes of conflict between the two sides, and said until this was adequately addressed, litigations would continue to soar in number.

He explained that most of the rent laws were silent, stressing that before a landlord can increase rent, the tenant must have stayed in the room for two years, and that before a landlord can eject a tenant, he or she must be given six months notice to enable the tenant look for alternative accommodation.

Mr. Cobbina noted that in most cases, landlords ignorantly create confusion by bending the rules to give tenants just three months, instead of the six months, thereby heightening confusion and litigations in the law courts.