Leonardo Blair, Staff Reporter
AN INCREASING number of tenants have been complaining that their landlords are illegally hiking their rents and that many of these landlords are not registered with the Rent Assessment Board (RAB).
Although a few landlords have sought permission from the RAB to increase rent by more than the maximum 7.5 per cent allowed annually under current laws, many landlords have been increasing rent at will citing on occasion, increases in property taxes and cost of building material.
For last year alone the RAB received 266 more complaints of illegal rent hikes and harassment from landlords says Madge Ashby-Coleman, RAB administrator.
So far this year she says, although they have had complaints of illegal rent hikes, no landlord, not even those registered with the RAB has applied to charge tenants additional increases above the stipulated 7.5 per cent.
Between 1998 and 2000 the RAB ordered some 3,079 landlords to refund illegal rent hikes. However, many of the landlords refused to return the money, instead, they allowed the tenants to "live out" the amounts.
PERMISSION
Checks by The Sunday Gleaner also show that a number of property owners have been taking the decision to rent without being aware of laws governing permission to rent, how to apply increases or how to charge monthly rent which is calculated at five per cent the value of the land plus 12.5 per cent the value of the building being rented.
"What? What you mean according to Rent Assessment Board? What them know about my place to tell me how much to charge. First them talk 'bout them want to tax the rent now they want to tell me how much to charge?" said one female landlord in Spanish Town. "I have been renting my place for years and this is the first time anybody calling me to tell me about registration. Until Government come and tell me how me and them build this house then they can come and tell me how much to charge."
Despite that landlord's response, others who let their properties without first registering with the RAB may be fined $5,000 or face court action.
Some real estate agents assessing the situation, however, say right now it appears as if there is a free-for-all approach in the real estate market.
"Some of the owners for these properties may look in the papers and see what others are charging for their property and just decide they will charge the same," said Karen Thompson, managing director of Horizon Real Estate Ltd. "I think what has made it bad is that there is no regulation. It's just chaos, there are big problems (in the real estate industry)."
RENT
Another real estate agent from V.B. Williams Realty Company Ltd. who did not wish to be named for this story said, "I can see it (overpriced properties) in the papers. I don't think people have a clue what to rent their place for," she said. "When I get somewhere to rent from my clients I am telling them straight up, what it's worth and we control the prices but many people are just getting up these days and advertising properties without a clue of the regulations concerning rent."
At the top-end of the real estate business, one agent dealing with properties being rented by companies for foreign staff and diplomats said the fickleness of the market has been more apparent since the local dollar started losing ground to the U.S. dollar.
Many of her clients who quote rent as high as US$1,700 monthly have been pulling their properties off the market in the hope of getting higher rent charges later on.
"They are still holding onto their properties, hoping they can get more," said the agent. Landlords, she explains, have suddenly become more aggressive with prices as at one point there used to be a marked difference between rental charges for furnished and unfurnished properties, however, prices for both are now almost the same. In some cases, tenants are now being asked to pay for the upkeep of properties as well, points out another agent.
UPKEEP
"What used to happen is that tenants used to pay for rent and the owners would pay for the upkeep, now the tenant has to pay for both," she said.
Despite the situation, Mrs. Ashby-Coleman says that unless tenants report illegal hikes to the RAB, there is nothing they can do about it with their current resources.
"If it's not reported we can do nothing," she says.
However, the Horizon Real Estate head does not agree. "There are genuine problems right now and I think it is the Rent Assessment Board's duty to do more, when they look and say 'we are powerless', I don't buy that. We need somebody to educate the people," she says.
Legislation governing the RAB was last updated in 1983 and there are plans to publish "soon" updated laws which will allow landlords higher rates of increases than the 7.5 per cent currently allowed under old laws.
"We have to take into consideration that some of these people (landlords) have really been spending money on their properties and the current laws are really outdated," says Mrs. Ashby-Coleman.
