Professor Ernest Uwazie (right) congratulating

Ms. Justina Ativor on doing a good job.

Issues between LandLords or Ladies and their tenants or tenants and their co-tenants are a constant nag­ging problem in the Ashaiman Munici­pality of the Greater Accra Region.

Some tenants are sometimes “chased out” by their landlords for their inability to pay their rents to make room for others who can afford their charges.

While some tenants accuse land­lords/ladies of making outrageous demands and are quick to increase the rents, the former have always argued that their demands are rather based on the current cost of building materi­als which they have to replace should there be the need for maintenance work.

The stress from these and others also compels some tenants to transfer their feelings to other tenants hence causing unnecessary confrontations in the house.

The Central Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Centre at Ashaiman has recorded a total of 282 rent cases from January 1 to July 9, out of which 201 have so far been settled.

The Leader of the Centre, Ms. Justina Ativor disclosed this on Monday when a group from the Califonia States University of Sacramento in the United States of America paid a courtesy call at the Centre to observe their activi­ties and extent of progress of work.

Ms Ativor said though the Cen­tre handled cases such as debt, land disputes, minor assaults, child neglect, custody or maintenance and marital issues those which were rent related and tenant/tenant disputes always recorded high numbers.

She admitted that sometimes some of the cases were challenging, with the experience and professional knowledge acquired over the years, they were able to settle most of them to the satisfaction of the various parties with a few of them going to court.

She mentioned the lack of respect for the Rent Act of Ghana by some landlords/ladies and tenants as a mat­ter of concern and suggested a change in behaviours.

The Leader of the Central ADR Centre said that there had been 11 land cases with 10 settled, four family disputes with two settled, two marital issues which were both settled, three child maintenance all settled and 27 debt cases with 19 settled from Janu­ary to July.

She said out of the total of 566 cases recorded 92 were currently pending.

A legal practitioner and member of the Ghana Association of Certified Mediators and Arbitrators (GHACMA), Martin Nwosu observed that because many of the Landlord/Ladies depended on the monies made from their hous­es as rents for their livelihood they demanded rent advances sometimes beyond two years.

He said some tenants were com­pelled to pay because they were desperate to rent but along the line the agreement between both parties were breached hence leading to issues that needed to be settled at the ADR centres or at the law courts.

He said frequent increment in rent charges was a matter of concern to many tenants and those who could not pay sometimes had to abandon their property in the rooms leaving the LandLords/Ladies with no choice but to resort to legal actions to get their rooms back.

The Director of the Centre for Af­rican Peace and Conflict Resolution at Califonia State University, Sacramento in the United States of America, Pro­fessor Ernest Uwazie commended the Central ADR Centre for their commit­ment in serving their communities to restore justice.

He said it was heartwarming that the Centre which was being manned by one of their trainees, Ms Ativor, was doing an impressive job.

He said the tour was to ensure exchange of ideas between person­nel from the University and the staff of the Central ADR Centre and other members of the GHACMA and also cre­ate opportunities for networking.

He applauded the Central ADR for facilitating the establishment of other Alternative Dispute Resolution Cen­tres in the Ashaiman Municipality and beyond.

The University has over the years been consistently visiting the Centre with various groups to observe the African Criminal Justice system among others

 From Dzifa Tetteh Tay, Ashaiman.