Tenants at the mercy of house owners

Over the last three decades Bangladesh has been undergoing rapid urbanisation. This has created mounting accommodation problem in the major cities. Capital city Dhaka is home to some 15 million people. One study shows nearly 85 per cent of them live in rented houses. The house owners are eager to make windfall profit by renting houses. But tenants do have rights under the law that regulates house rent although most of the owners are reluctant to allow the tenants their legal rights.
House rent in Dhaka is going up by about 15 per cent every year over the past 22 years but the law says owners cannot rent their houses without written agreements. Moreover, tenants can sue the owners for violating the law and owners cannot evict tenants during the case proceeding. But the implementation of the law is scarce as these are all in the book. These rules are violated by most, if not all, building owners as there is no designated body to implement the law.
There is a funny system existing in our society that house owners demand and hike the rent whenever and how much they like and tenants have no say at all. Such an increase in house rent, coupled with high inflation, deeply affects the middle and lower income people. As a result, tenants have to cut other necessary expenditure short, most of the time food consummation and healthcare.
There are five rent controllers in the capital; all are senior assistant judges, to resolve disputes between owners and tenants over rents. Under the House Rent Control Act, 1991, tenants can go to the court of rent controllers if they are deprived of their rights. But it is really astonishing that about 90 per cent of the tenants are unaware of the law. This lack of awareness helps the owners to exploit tenants. Those who know about the law prefer to be exploited by their house owners to facing the time consuming legal battle. Tenants are also reluctant to go to court fearing eviction by the owners and some think it is easy to shift house rather than bearing the extra hike or lengthy case proceedings.
There are numerous reasons for the owners to increase the rent. Price hike, increased income tax or even an announcement of a new pay scale increases the house rent excessively, putting tenants at a greater disadvantage. Again, the rent controllers cannot take legal actions until a case is brought to their courts. The rent controllers are to ensure that their verdicts are implemented after the settlement of a case but they cannot always do so as they lack manpower. According to the law, owners can increase house rents after every two years only at a standard rate. There is no legal body to fix this amount but the law states the standard rate is one that is reasonable for the area. Under the Act, a standard rent hike may be fixed through negotiations between the owner and the tenant. If the rent is abnormally hiked, a landlord can be fined double the amount taken from the tenant. If the owners take advance for more than one month, they will have to pay double the money as fine.
The Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) urges the government to amend the existing law and form a specific body to fix house rents considering the standards, amenities and locations of the buildings and to implement it or to assign its implementation to such a body like the city corporation.  A petition, to stop house owners from arbitrary decisions, awaits High Court directives for strict enforcement of the law.
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