The management of the Rent Control Department of the Ministry of Works and Housing has denied reports making the rounds on traditional and social media platforms that offices of the rent regulatory body across the country are housed in rented properties.

According to the management, no single district office of the control is housed in a rented property.

The management was categorical in saying that the accommodation for the various offices of the control is provided for by the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).

“So it cannot be true offices of the Control are housed in rented properties,” it added.

The control’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Mr Emmanual Kporsu, made this denial while explaining the National Rental Assistant Scheme (NRAS) launched by Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia in Accra.

He spoke in an interview with the host of the Ghana Yensom morning show, Odehyeeba Kofi Essuman, on Accra 100.5 FM on Wednesday, February 1, 2023.

He stressed that the news that went viral that a rent control office had been ejected for non-payment of rent are all false.

“We heard this last year and we started an investigation to unravel the story but to date, the person who posted the report cannot be traced,” he added. 

He noted that the NRAS scheme is to support young people who are gainfully employed but cannot afford rent advance.

He said the scheme is more or less like a revolving fund to assist people 18 years and above with a Ghana Card, bank account and a Mobile Money account. He said without this, you cannot apply for assistance from the scheme because the money given out had to be paid for.

He explained that the scheme does not negotiate with the landlords but the tenant does so for the scheme to pay the advance to the property owner. 

He asserted that per the Rent Act, landlords are supposed to demand six-month’s rent advance only. 

If the tenant is willing to pay for two or five years the landlord is obliged to accept, he said, “but the law says he cannot demand rent advance of more than six months.”