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The Rent Control Department (RCD) has refuted assertions that it is toothless when it comes to ensuring that tenants are not exploited by their landlords.

Speaking in an interview on GhanaWeb’s ‘The Lowdown’ programme, the Public Relations Officer of the RCD, Emmanuel Hovey Kporsu, said that even though the department has limited resources, it is performing its duty of regulating the rental sector of Ghana.

He added that most tenants are exploited because they do not seek the services of the Rent Control Department.

“Despite the fact that we are lacking some physical items to perform our duties to the extreme, I didn’t want to take the opinion out there (that the department is toothless).

“We get our mandate from the Rent Act, Act 220, and specifically Section 5 (of the Act) lays out the function of the Rent Control Department,” Hovey Kporsu said.

He said that the department is basically mandated by law to determine the cost of facilities being rented through established assessment criteria and resolve issues between tenants and their landlords.

According to him, the department provides certificates on the rental cost of facilities to both tenants and landlords, and these certificates can even be requested by tenants at the offices of the RCD so that they are not cheated.

“Because of our ignorance of the Act, we just capitulate to the landlords’ rents,” he added.

The PRO, therefore, urged Ghanaians to report landlords who are exploiting them to the department without fear that they will be evicted.

“…the landlord has no right to evict you... until your tenancy expires. The law says that if you have not contravened any of the provisions in the Act, the landlord has no right to evict you,” he said.