Enact effective rent control law

Photo: STAR

The fixed income city dwellers comprising both middle and lower middle class households are in real trouble to tackle the rising house rent in the country. Landlords, in the recent years, have increased their rentals on the plea of increase in prices of the essential commodities, construction materials, holding tax and cost of the utility services.
House rent has increased nearly 300% percent during the last 18 years. On an average, nearly 70 per cent of monthly income of a household is spent on house rent. However, ideally it should not exceed 20 per cent of income of any household.
The fixed and low income households are the worst sufferers affected by the frequent increase in house rent. But there is no control of house rent in absence of effective government measures. There is absolutely no authority to monitor the increase of house rent. Also there is no effective law to protect the rights of the tenants.
Rent controller system was first introduced in this subcontinent during British rule. The Rent Control Act was enacted for the first time in 1943. It was amended in 1953 in the then East Pakistan. As a continuation to this, the latest amendment was made back in 1991, which is known as Premises Rent Control Act 1991. As per the law, house rent should be assessed at 15 per cent of the total cost of land and construction for a premise, which is in fact ignored in most of the cases.
Here the existing laws related to house rent contain a lot of inconsistencies in terms of implementations. Both landlords and tenants are ignorant about the law in general.
We urge the government to take necessary action against the Greedy Landlords.