The government should take steps to control irrationally high house rent hikes and also set aside 30% of the houses reserved for safe and secure accommodation for singles, a tenants platform demanded on Tuesday.
They also demanded that the government or city corporation fixed house rents that are displayed at the entrance of each house to prevent abrupt rent hike by house owners annually.
These demands were included in a seven-point demand placed by Bharatiya Parishad at a press conference held in the Nirmal Sen Auditorium in Dhaka.
The platform President Bahrain-e-Sultan Bahar alleged that house owners are whimsically increasing rents by 30%-40% annually ignoring the Premises Rent Control Act 1991 that stipulates the annual rent should be equal to 15% of the market value of a particular premise.
“The unusual hikes imposed by landlords are making lives difficult for tenants. It is irrelevant to hike the rents in line with the commodity price hike,” he said.
The platform, to ensure the rights of tenants, demanded that the city corporation shall determine and collect the holding tax after knowing the actual rent from the tenants.
The other demands include – the agreement must for house rentals, a must signed receipts of rent issued by landlords to tenants, and no irregularities in utility connections like gas, electricity and water.
General Secretary of the council Khatune Jannat Fatema and members Mohammad Mostafa, Shamim Ahmed and Abul Kalam Azad were present at the event, among others.