The Ashaiman Central Office of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Centre recorded 999 rent cases in 2012 as against 759 cases handled in 2011.

The figure showed an increase of 240 rent cases dealt with by the centre last year.

The statistics were contained in a copy of a report on the activities of the ADR in Ashaiman made available to the Ghana News Agency.

The report, dated January 28, 2013, and signed by the mediators of the centre; Mr Gabriel Atsu, Mr Kingsley Kutiame, Mr Herbert K. Mensah and Ms Justina Ativor, stated that the mediators successfully settled 980 of the 999 cases, while 19 are pending.

The report said both landlords and tenants were ignorant of the country’s rent laws, which stipulated that prospective tenants were to pay not more than six months rent advance.

It stated that whereas some landlords demanded between two and three years rent advance from tenants, some tenants on the other hand, owed between three and 24 months rent arrears.

Some landlords in the Ashaiman Municipality, the report noted, often connived with aggrieved men to eject their wives and girlfriends from their rented apartments whenever their relationships went sour.

Other rent-related issues included disagreement over the sharing of utility bills, lack of maintenance of buildings by the landlords, and the creation of nuisance by tenants, the report indicated.

It said in an attempt to forcefully eject tenants, some landlords resorted to the pouring of urine, human excreta and garbage on their tenants’ premises. Last year, the centre also handled 86 debt recovery cases, 52 non-payments of utility bills, 15 child maintenance cases, four land disputes and three disputes over family property, the report said.