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courts of law to recover payment or enforce their rights under a tenancy arrangement which can be costly . The rental in arrears owing by tenant or deposits owing by landlord sought to be recovered may be less that the legal fees incurred if the tenant or landlord disputes such claims .
A recent phenomenon has arisen where the property owner participates in short home stay program such as ‘ AirBnB ’ and the occupants of these properties flout management rules and incurring the wrath of neighbour ’ s and residents within a development . Whether this kind of short stay arrangements should also come under RTA ? What about the rights of the Resident Association in a Guarded and Gated Community and of those Management bodies ( JMB , MC and SubMC ) for stratified properties who are sometimes inadvertently involved in tenancy disputes ?
On reading the Minister ’ s information on RTA , HBA is concerned with the intended scope of this RTA as it also aims , as was reported , to cover matters such as ‘ rent control ’ for housing areas ( including low cost projects ) and perceived racist practices when tenants try to rent properties .
With regards to both these areas , HBA respectfully disagrees with the Honourable Minister and is of the view that the proposed RTA , if ever made law , should not include both these areas for the following reasons .
Rental is always based on free market . Rental is a private commercial arrangement between a willing tenant and a willing landlord and the Government should not interfere in such arrangements . The Government would be sending a very wrong message to the investing public at large by trying to interfere in such private rental arrangements .
If the Government is going to interfere with rental for residential housing , there will be calls for the Government to also interfere in rental for commercial properties . The Government will then be forced to cap rentals for even Shopping Malls , Food Courts , Restaurants , Office Buildings , etc , and this will definitely drive away all local and also foreign investors .
It was reported that one of the reasons that the Government wanted to cap rental was to exert some control for low cost projects . The Minster was reported to have said “ Some irresponsible ones have been charging higher rates to
PROPERTY360DIGEST E-MAGAZINE ISSUE # 6