Statement of Tenants Association is untrue- TDC

Tema, Aug. 20, GNA- The Tema Development Corporation (TDC) has described as "untrue", a statement by the Tema Tenants Association that TDC had refused to sell its houses at sites one and two, as well as, institutional and multi-tenanted houses to them.

A statement issued by the management of TDC on Wednesday explained that legal tenants have been given the opportunity to own their units at very low and uneconomic prices under an agreement signed in 1996 between the two parties.

It said the agreement also stipulated that "TDC revises the rent and selling prices to market levels and this is what the corporation has tried to do even though the rates are still chasing the actual market rates".

The statement said sites one and two houses had been special cases, because they were supposed to be temporary structures.

On institutional houses, the management said the Ministry of Works and Housing decided that their status should not change, hence TDC's refusal to sell the institutional houses to individuals, except with the express request of the institution to do so.

"The institutions or companies are the legal tenants and not the staff who are occupying the rental units."

It said under the 1996 agreement the multi-tenanted houses where some units could have taken between two and four legal tenants, it was agreed that if the multiple tenants could come together to purchase the rental unit, TDC will sell to them as joint tenants, and this had been done in a number of cases.

The Tema Tenants Association has refused to pay a new rent being demanded by the TDC for the rental units. The association considered the new rent of 30,000 cedis from the previous 2,000 cedis with effect from May this year, as "very astronomical".

Members are rather demanding outright sale of the houses as stipulated in the 1996 agreement.