Ghana's Rent Commissioner orders landlady to reinstate tenant evicted at Lashibi

Ghana's Acting Rent Commissioner, Frederick Opoku, has ordered a landlady to allow a tenant back into her room at Lashibi Community 16 in Accra, after the woman was accused of sending young men to break into the apartment and carry out the tenant's belongings while she was away.

Opoku gave the directive during an interaction with the landlady and asked the police to ensure that everything taken out is returned, with an inventory of what was damaged. "I am directing that she is getting back to the room until a court of competent jurisdiction decides otherwise," he said. "The only institution that has the power to evict people, not even Rent Control, is the courts."

The landlady defended her action, saying she had told the tenant to leave more than 20 days earlier and that the woman had not signed a contract. She said she had planned to move the items into a storage room. Pressed on whether she had the right to enter someone's room, she replied: "I know that I was wrong, but we had given her opportunity."

The tenant said she was in church when she received a call that the landlady had ordered people to break into her apartment and bring her things outside. She said she rented the two-bedroom apartment at GH¢2,500 and paid GH¢5,000 to secure it, an amount that included a security deposit, on a tenancy agreed for three to six months. A sofa and her son's bag were among the items damaged. The matter is already with the police.

Opoku told the landlady she should have gone to the police or to Rent Control instead of taking the law into her own hands, and said his office would pursue the case "without any relent". "No matter whether you are tall, you are short or you are big, you can never be bigger than the laws of the republic," he said.