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Pardon Gotora Urban Scape
On December 12, 2013, I wrote an article in this publication on the Rent Board (herein after referred to as the “Board”) entitled “Rent Board: A Toothless Bulldog?
I still receive enquiries and feedback from readers who access the information through the Internet when searching for the contacts for the board.
There are numerous readers who have asked me to re-do an almost similar paper for some people who might have missed the article back then, but would still need to be empowered. I had no option but to oblige.
To begin with, there are two types of Rent Boards. The first one is Commercial Rent Board, which is a creation of the Commercial Premises (Lease Control) Act, Chapter 14:04 and I think it is superintended by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
This board deals with business premises such as office space, industrial space, shops and like-minded structures. Any disputes related to letting of these premises are dealt with by this board.
The second one, which is the axis of this discussion, is the Rent Board and Rent Appeal Board that deals with domestic premises and is the creation of the Housing and Building Act, Chapter 22:07.
This falls under the jurisdiction of the ministry responsible for housing and in this instance it is the Ministry of National Housing and Social Amenities. According to the Act, the minister responsible for housing is obliged to come up with a Statutory Instrument (SI), which enables him to constitute so many boards to be known as rent boards, chaired by a magistrate (retired or serving). The latest edition SI is 32 of 2007 which contains all rent regulations.
The Rent Board is a tribunal that arbitrates over disputes between a lessor (landlord/landlady) and a lessee (lodger or tenant). Some of the disputes arise from non-payment of rent, malicious damage to property, non-payment of bills such as water and electricity, arbitrary eviction, improper notice, denied access to dwelling unit and rent increases. For purposes of this paper, there are two topical issues at the moment worth exploring that are flooding the Rent Board, the rest one can refer to the article cited above.
(a) Arbitrary Eviction
This is where people are given inadequate notice to vacate the residential premises and property thrown out by the lessor. The SI 32 of 2007 stipulates that a lessee should be given three calendar months written notice to vacate the property for a justifiable cause such as non-payment of rent, house extension, or the family intends to use the whole property, among others.
This notice served should be written for it might be produced as evidence before the board. In practice, the majority of lessees are given the short notice verbally by the lessors, and there is no evidence to produce when summoned to the board.
In unfortunate incidents, the lessee’s property is thrown out or he/she is locked out of property and denied access by the lessor. Three calendar months start on the first day of the month. This implies that when I am given notice on the second of the month, it will be effective the next 1st day of the following month.
Nothing should change during the notice period, the same free access, no rent increase during notice period, and one should be able to utilise all the amenities such as water and electricity without any hindrances from the lessor.
This notice should be signed by both parties, in the presence of some witnesses from both ends. In the event that the lessee denies signing the notice, one can utilise the services of the local police, who can endorse should the lessee still refuses to sign it.
(b) Charging rentals in foreign currency and demand for cash for rentals
In June 2019, Government promulgated Statutory Instrument 33 of 2019 which outlawed the multi-currency system that was adopted in 2009 and operated for the past decade.
The Herald (June 25, 2019) reported that Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube intimated that Government had taken the decision to abandon the multi-currency system after noting that the market was choosing to price a number of goods and services in US dollars when the majority of citizens earned the local unit.
The majority of the lessees earn in local currency. However, most of the lessors are demanding US dollars for their rentals. Where some are a bit flexible and accept local currency, they are demanding the rentals in cash.
Very few are comfortable with plastic money anymore. This is a fertile ground for disputes which require the attention of the board and I am sure they have been inundated with such queries. For fear of eviction, some lessees are forced to pay by circumstances and appear content with the status quo yet in reality they are not, cognitive of the hustle of buying the US dollars from the informal market.
Consequently, the cases are unreported to the board.
The gist of this paper is not on what the Rent Board is, as this was covered before, but on whether the citizens are fully utilising the board, or the board is understaffed.
There are five boards across the country, representing regions in Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru, Mutare and Masvingo. Cases from Kariba are supposed to be dealt with by the Northern Region in Harare.
Where rent disputes arise, the board is empowered to inspect the immovable property. Do the staff compliment and resources available place the board in a position to execute this mandate judiciously? For a country as huge as Zimbabwe, can we do so with only five regions for all the cases in residential premises?
Is Government doing enough educational campaigns for members of the public to report their cases to the board? Remember, the board does not look for cases rather it deals with reported cases only. When faced with eviction or non-payment of rent or refusal to vacate the premise or dumping of movable property by the lessee, that is when people rush to report to the police, who then refer them to the board and that is how many people have accessed this pertinent information.
Police implement decisions from the board. Otherwise without any written documentation from the board, they alone cannot evict a lessee.
Online Reporter