Tenants feel the pinch as house rent spirals

Desk Report: Majority of the city dwellers are faced with mounting pressure due to abnormal rise in house rents over the last few years, reports Daily Sun.
In absence of a proper law and slack monitoring by the authorities concerned, the situation continues to deteriorate, allege city dwellers.
Those who belong to the lower or working class are bearing the brunt of continuous increase in house rent, as the lion’s share of their income is spent on it.
Almost all the landlords raise house rents at will, forcing tenants to carry the extra financial burden. Normally landlords raise house rents at the beginning of a year, but there is no proper law to ensure reasonable hike in rents.
If any tenants refuse to pay the hiked amount, they are asked to vacate the house.
In addition to that, most of the tenants have to pay an amount equivalent to two to three months’ house rents and in some cases up to six months’ rents in advance.
According to Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB), the average rent of a two-bedroom flat was Tk 2,982 in the capital in 1990 while it stood at Tk 18,150 in 2015 and Tk 21,340 last year. House rent in the capital rose most in the last 10 years.
The rent of a medium-sized flat now ranges from Tk 12,000 to 16,000 while it was in between Tk 7,000 and Tk 10,000 two to three years ago.
Average rent of a 1,000 sq-ft to 1,200 sq-ft flat at Siddheswari, Shantinagar, Segunbagicha, Azimpur, Paribagh, Farmate, Mohakhali and Dhanmondhi is now from Tk 18,000 to Tk 25,000 while it was from Tk 10,000 to Tk 15,000 three years ago.
According to the existing law, owners can hike house rents only once in every two years at a ‘standard rate’. The law has not fixed the hike percentage or amount, but said the ‘standard rate’ is one that is appropriate and reasonable for a particular area.
Under the House Rent Act 1991, the rent hike will be fixed through negotiations between the owner and the tenant or by the rent controller in case of a dispute.
If the rent is abnormally hiked, a landlord can be fined double the amount taken from the tenant, the law says.
CAB President Ghulam Rahman said house rent rose by 8.14 percent in the capital in 2017.
He recommended reforming the House Rent Act and forming a House Rent Commission.
Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Huq said that if a tenant is aggrieved, he has the right to remedy the problem. As many as 3,500 cases are pending in court till December last year and 565 cases were settled in that year, the minister told Jatiya Sangsad on June 24.
Talking to daily sun, Rafiqul Islam, a private service holder, said, “I am living in a one-bedroom flat in Mirpur-1. The rent is now Tk 9000. Last year it was Tk 8000. While I requested the owner not to increase the rent, he told me to leave the house.”
Momen Hasan, an employee of a private farm, is looking for a new flat after his landlord had served a notice on him last month mentioning that he will have to either pay an extra amount of Tk 1,500 a month or vacate the flat.
On July 1, 2015, the High Court in a verdict directed the government to constitute a commission within six months to recommend house rents on the basis of house quality and locations. The HC order came following a writ petition filed by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh.
But the authorities concerned are yet to comply with the HC directive, although tenants are being hard hit by indiscriminate and arbitrary house rent hike.