By Eileen Cox
Recently I came across a brochure ‘What you need to know about Landlord & Tenant.’ It was prepared by the Guyana Association of Women Lawyers and is meant for tenants and not for landlords. A landlord is usually considered to be someone who is harsh on tenants. But times have changed and now it is the landlord who needs protection.
Some years ago when it was realized that there was a severe housing shortage in Georgetown, householders turned their bottom flats into apartments and rented them. However, when tenants began to occupy these apartments and showed an unwillingness to pay rent, many householders preferred to have their apartments kept empty.
For the benefit of those who seek to become landlords, let me recount the experiences of one landlord.
First of all, it is advisable to ask for police clearance from the person who seeks accommodation. If it is a foreigner this may not be possible. There are some men who seek to express themselves violently and to do this they select a much weaker person on whom they can safely vent their rage. Thus there is constant disagreement between the superman and weaker tenants.
In one instance a tenant walked under some damp clothes that were hanging on a line under the house. The owner of the clothes rushed down and kicked the culprit. Another disagreement about the use of the standpipe ended with a bucket of water being thrown over the weaker tenant. The quarrels did not end there. The man’s door was kicked down; he was held by the throat for making noise and was roughly helped down a long flight of stairs.
There is the female tenant with an ardent lover who will not leave her alone and follows her from one home to another. He seeks a rent-free bed, arrives in the dark of night and leaves after an early morning bath. He is not averse to kicking the woman he adores.
It is advisable for a landlord never to rent a room to a husband and wife or man and his partner.
They may be a fighting couple and may be addicted to alcohol. A couple imbibed every Saturday night and usually ended up fighting with knives. The police would not help as these were classified as domestic rows.
There is a belief widely accepted that once notice to quit has been served, the tenant no longer has to pay rent. Rent must be paid as long as a room or house is being occupied. But tenants may withhold the last two payments in order to have enough in hand to pay to their new landlord. Therefore it is wise to obtain security in advance.
In one case a tenant moved out of her room and left a padlock on the door. She did not return for months and was not paying rent. With the help of another tenant she collected her personal effects without paying for the storage period. Another tenant moved out in the night leaving a padlock on his door. It took a few days for the landlord to realize that the room was vacant.
The tenant, of course, was owing rent.
Some tenants are keen to accommodate relatives or friends for short periods. This should not be done without permission from the landlord.
A tenant in a bottom flat apartment helped himself to lengths of wood and wire mesh that belonged to the landlord. He stored these in the apartment and refused to allow the landlord to enter. He was reluctant to pay rent and eventually moved out with the wood and mesh that were not his and owing rent.
Tenants in old people’s homes are expected to clean the premises and to purchase the cleaning material. Tenants elsewhere may resent having to clean and so continue to live with dirt surrounding them. They use electrical equipment and are surprised when they are told to pay the GPL bill.
It is difficult to find tenants who are compatible and who can live in peace, but eventually such tenants may be found. But there needs to be protection for landlords as far as payment of rents is concerned.
If a tenant owes $40,000 and is taken to the Magistrate’s Court he pays only $10,000, which may not cover the lawyer’s fee. He promises to pay in the future but never does.
