Traders call for revision of ‘biased’ Rent Control Ordinance

ISLAMABAD: Local traders are dissatisfied with Islamabad Rent Control Ordinance 2001, claiming it is biased and favours owners only.

However, land and property owners feel the same way. Office-bearers of the landowners’ association have also demanded that the ordinance be replaced with a “balanced law,” to end the tussle between owners and tenants.

Traders have, in particular, complained against the provision of the ordinance under which a tenant can be evicted if he or she fails to deposit the rent money within 15 days of the date agreed upon in the tenancy contract.

Malik Sohail, President of Traders Welfare Association, Blue Area, said owners misuse this provision whenever somebody else offers them higher rents for their property.

“Owners refuse to collect rent money from their tenants for a month or two and then one day send a default notice to the tenant,” Malik said, adding that the ordinance completely favours owners in such cases.

Another provision in the ordinance allows owners to evict tenants from their property by claiming they need it for personal use. Then, later, they rent out the same property at higher rates, he explained.

“The parliament is responsible for our plight,” Sohail said, accusing politicians of playing into the hands of influential landowners in the city.

Sohail said because of the absence of a tenancy law, rents of residential units in the city had crossed all limits and become unaffordable for most people.

Khalid Randhawa, an office-bearer of the Islamabad Owners Association, told The Express Tribune that disagreements arose only amongst those tenants and owners who had not signed mutual agreements.

However, Randhawa did admit that some owners were misusing the ordinance and that it favoured owners more than tenants.

The owner of Sihala Flour Mills, who also owns property in Blue Area, said the everyday clashes between owners and tenants had made owners hesitant to rent out their properties to individuals and they now preferred corporate groups.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 18^th, 2010.