President John Dramani Mahama has called on tenants to report landlords who demand more than the legally permitted rent advance, urging stricter enforcement to curb exploitation in the housing sector.
Speaking during a dialogue with Organised Labour at the Jubilee House in Accra on Tuesday, March 17, the President stressed that rising housing costs continue to place a heavy burden on households, making access to affordable accommodation increasingly difficult.
“Housing is a major problem, and for households, it is consuming their income. We need to have a national housing dialogue and decide how, between the private sector, government, and labour, we can come together and come up with a social housing policy to make sure that we provide affordable housing for workers to purchase on a mortgage or to be able to rent at a favourable cost,” he stated.
President Mahama attributed the growing trend of excessive rent demands to the country’s housing deficit, a challenge he pledged to address while noting that some landlords are exploiting the situation to impose unlawful charges on tenants.
“The reason why the private house owners are taking advantage is because of the deficit in housing. We have the rent court, and we say do not take more than six months of rent advance, but the one who is renting and the house owner are both not prepared to go to the rent court,” he added.
He further encouraged tenants to take decisive action by reporting such cases to the appropriate authorities, which is the rent court assuring that offenders would be held accountable.
“You can go and report him to the rent court, and we will hold that landlord accountable,” he emphasised.
The President’s remarks come amid growing concerns from the public over the widespread practice of landlords demanding up to two years’ rent advance, a situation widely criticised as unlawful and exploitative.
