TDC tenants protest rent increase, want sale of houses

Tema, Aug 13, GNA - Tenants of the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) houses at sites One and Two, Community One, Tema, on Tuesday protested against the proposed increase in rent from 2,000 to 30,000 cedis. They expressed their desire to buy the houses in accordance with an agreement reached between them and the TDC in 1986 that allowed sitting tenants a five-year moratorium to own the houses.

Addressing a press conference at Tema, Mr Douglas Spencer, General Secretary of the Tema Tenants Association (TTA), said in May the TDC came out with rent increases that members could not afford to pay because they were high.

He said the struggle for the ownership of rental units, which the TDC continuously refuses to maintain, started in 1981 when the tenants sought redress from the court.

However, upon an agreement signed between the TDC and the tenants that the houses would be sold to them the case was withdrawn from court. Based upon that, Mr Spencer said, they were made to fill occupancy forms costing 10,000 cedis each but the TDC had since not honoured its obligation until now ''only to hear of the proposed increment in rent which we object to.''

Mr Spencer said the association is prepared to negotiate with the TDC for "a fair rent on the rental units and the subsequent outright sale of the houses including the institutional ones."