Tenants groan as there is no control over greedy landlords
Thursday, 14 April 2011
Emdadul Haque:
Millions of tenants in the capital have become the victims of irrational decisions of landlords who on some occasions increase house rents without any logical grounds while the relevant rent control laws are not enforced properly. The abnormal hike in house rent makes the lives of middle-income people miserable as it eats up a major portion of their monthly income. The house owners raise the house rent by at least Tk 500 every year depending on the size and location of the premises, although there has been no hike in Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) holding taxes for long, taking opportunity of the lax application of laws and lack of any monitoring. Owners often claim that they are charged more than the amount fixed by the DCC as holding tax and the maintenance cost goes up as well. But the DCC did not raise the taxes during the last two decades. People with limited income are the main victims as their salaries never increase proportionate to the amount of house rent increase. How can this group survive as prices of essentials and conveyance go up almost every year? If landlords pocket the increased salary on a regular basis then how these people will meet their increasing living costs? The government is not sincere at all about implementation of the relevant regulations as it did not reply even after 10 months to a High Court rule issued on May 17, 2011 which asked it to explain in four weeks why it should not be directed to enforce the Premises Rent Control Act. The DCC fixed different house rents for 10 regions as per the existing law enacted in 1989. It is yet to review the taxes although the rents increased significantly since then. The rates vary from area to area but nobody follows the rules. According to the DCC rates, the rent in Gulshan and Banani areas is Tk 14-16 per square feet, Tk 12-13 in Dhanmondi, Tk 11-11.50 in Mohakhali, Tk 6.50-7.0 in Nakhalpara, Tk 6.0 in Kalyanpur and Pallabi, Tk 7.0-8.0 in Uttara, Tk 5.0-6.0 in Shantibagh, Tk 9.0 in Naya Paltan, Tk 8.50-9.0 in Shantinagar, Tk 8.0 in Jhigatola and Rampura, Tk 7.0 in Farmgate area and Tk 6.50 per square feet in Mirpur. However, house owners charge almost double the DCC rates, alleged officials of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB). CAB in a report in 2009 said house rent in the capital scaled up by 321.16 per cent over the last two decades (1991-2009) and it is going beyond the capacity of the limited income group. The law prohibits house owners from increasing rent whenever they like. But the reality is otherwise. Senior lawyer of the Supreme Court Ahmed Azam Khan thinks that the tenants can be benefited if the government enacts a law incorporating imprisonment as punishment beside fines for violating the laws. If any house owner wants to increase rent, he has to apply to the rent controller or follow the deed made while renting his house. Most of the landlords follow the deeds, if there is any. But landlords never go to DCC to get approval from rent controller for increasing the rent. This is the main reason why tenants are compelled to pay the increased rents or vacate the premises. Every month hundreds of new tenants rent houses. The greedy landlords take opportunity to raise the rent whenever a new tenant arrives as the government has stopped providing new gas and electricity connections to new residences. Other owners do the same with their existing tenants as there are very limited options to rent a new house if their income is limited. This is one of the main reasons behind the abnormal hike in house rents. Landlords account for 17 per cent of the city population. The rest 83 per cent are the tenants. The tales of miseries are perhaps similar in other cities. How long the tenants will suffer due to the government's inactiveness? The writer can be reached at ehaque63@gmail.com
Millions of tenants in the capital have become the victims of irrational decisions of landlords who on some occasions increase house rents without any logical grounds while the relevant rent control laws are not enforced properly. The abnormal hike in house rent makes the lives of middle-income people miserable as it eats up a major portion of their monthly income. The house owners raise the house rent by at least Tk 500 every year depending on the size and location of the premises, although there has been no hike in Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) holding taxes for long, taking opportunity of the lax application of laws and lack of any monitoring. Owners often claim that they are charged more than the amount fixed by the DCC as holding tax and the maintenance cost goes up as well. But the DCC did not raise the taxes during the last two decades. People with limited income are the main victims as their salaries never increase proportionate to the amount of house rent increase. How can this group survive as prices of essentials and conveyance go up almost every year? If landlords pocket the increased salary on a regular basis then how these people will meet their increasing living costs? The government is not sincere at all about implementation of the relevant regulations as it did not reply even after 10 months to a High Court rule issued on May 17, 2011 which asked it to explain in four weeks why it should not be directed to enforce the Premises Rent Control Act. The DCC fixed different house rents for 10 regions as per the existing law enacted in 1989. It is yet to review the taxes although the rents increased significantly since then. The rates vary from area to area but nobody follows the rules. According to the DCC rates, the rent in Gulshan and Banani areas is Tk 14-16 per square feet, Tk 12-13 in Dhanmondi, Tk 11-11.50 in Mohakhali, Tk 6.50-7.0 in Nakhalpara, Tk 6.0 in Kalyanpur and Pallabi, Tk 7.0-8.0 in Uttara, Tk 5.0-6.0 in Shantibagh, Tk 9.0 in Naya Paltan, Tk 8.50-9.0 in Shantinagar, Tk 8.0 in Jhigatola and Rampura, Tk 7.0 in Farmgate area and Tk 6.50 per square feet in Mirpur. However, house owners charge almost double the DCC rates, alleged officials of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB). CAB in a report in 2009 said house rent in the capital scaled up by 321.16 per cent over the last two decades (1991-2009) and it is going beyond the capacity of the limited income group. The law prohibits house owners from increasing rent whenever they like. But the reality is otherwise. Senior lawyer of the Supreme Court Ahmed Azam Khan thinks that the tenants can be benefited if the government enacts a law incorporating imprisonment as punishment beside fines for violating the laws. If any house owner wants to increase rent, he has to apply to the rent controller or follow the deed made while renting his house. Most of the landlords follow the deeds, if there is any. But landlords never go to DCC to get approval from rent controller for increasing the rent. This is the main reason why tenants are compelled to pay the increased rents or vacate the premises. Every month hundreds of new tenants rent houses. The greedy landlords take opportunity to raise the rent whenever a new tenant arrives as the government has stopped providing new gas and electricity connections to new residences. Other owners do the same with their existing tenants as there are very limited options to rent a new house if their income is limited. This is one of the main reasons behind the abnormal hike in house rents. Landlords account for 17 per cent of the city population. The rest 83 per cent are the tenants. The tales of miseries are perhaps similar in other cities. How long the tenants will suffer due to the government's inactiveness? The writer can be reached at ehaque63@gmail.com