There’s a lot of confusion over whether tenants should be given 3-month rent free grace period
There’s an age-old perception often argued out by tenants when their rent is due that they must be given a three-month rent-free grace period by the landlord in order to find another space.
The perception has over the years been a headache for landlords and a bone of contention between them and tenants.
Many times, tenants either run to the Rent Control Department or threaten their homeowners with such resolve to make a case to live rent-free three months after expiration of their stay.
Public Relations Officer at the Rent Control Department, Emmanuel Hovey Kporsu, has debunked such assertion, intimating that there is no such provision in the rent laws of Ghana.
Speaking on JoyNews’ AM Show Thursday, Mr Kporsu explained that such entitlements demanded by tenants are misconceptions which should be done away with.
“This notion in the minds of tenants that when you are being evicted, you should be given three months grace period is not in our laws…”
He furthered that no landlord owes his or her tenant any grace period, to speak of permitting the tenant to stay for the period on free rent.
“So, there’s no free rent, and there’s no grace period,” he posited.
Emmanuel Hovey Kporsu averred that according to Section 31 of the Rent Law, “nothing should prevent the landlord from collecting his rent from any tenant.”
The Rent Control PRO cautioned tenants to avoid waiting until their rents are due before engaging house owners for extension of their stay or otherwise.
This he said will afford the landlords ample time to equally look for another occupant in the event that the incumbent decides to move out.
“The scenario is that if you’ve come to stay on somebody’s premises and you want to dwell in for a year, getting to the third or second month to the end of your tenancy, you should start a conversation, start talking to the landlord whether you will renew it or you want to vacate.”
“But you wait till the end of your tenancy before you go to the landlord or you run to the Rent Control Department that you want grace period and then also that the grace period must be free, this as I said, there’s no grace period, and there’s no free rent,” he noted as quoted by myjoyonline.