Is your rent due? But what happens if you’re out of work due to coronavirus, you can’t afford to pay the rent, and the landlord is threatening to kick you out? Yes, the going has been challenging since the pandemic broke in. Evictions over nonpayment of rent have been on the rise.
The Parliament is set to discuss the Landlord and Tenant Bill 2021 amended by the National Assembly Transport, Public Works and Housing Committee. The bill allows the landlords to issue a one-month notice to vacate if the tenant fails to pay one month’s rent.
Previously, a landlord could only terminate a tenancy if the tenant could not pay for three months consecutively. Therefore, if the Parliament adopts the new proposal sails through, a tenant will have the authority to evict the tenant over one month’s rent areas.
However, the landlord will not have the permission to seize tenants’ property or install deadlocks, take off doors or roofs, or breach any other obligation without following the legal process.
“A landlord who evicts a tenant without the authority of a tribunal or willfully subjects a tenant to any annoyance to induce or compel the tenant to vacate the premises or to pay a higher rent for the premises commits an offense.
Also, no landlord shall, without legal process, seize a tenant’s property for default in the payment of rent or the breach of any other obligation of the tenant,” the Bill says.
In addition, the draft seeks to have the landlords have signed records of the payments and share them with the tenant or pay a fine not exceeding one month’s rent.
“A landlord shall provide a tenant with receipts for reasonable expenses incurred for repairing premises that the landlord proposes to deduct from any security deposit held,” reads the report set to be a debate in Parliament.
The Landlord and Tenant Bill 2021 is expected to repeal the Distress for Rent Act (Cap 293), the Rent Restitution Act (Cap 296), and the Landlord and Tenant (Shops Hotels and Catering Establishments) Act – merging them into a single law. What are your thoughts about the proposed bill?
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