Head of Public Relations Officer of the Rent Control Department, has said that tenancy agreement must take into account fundamental human rights of tenants.

Emmanuel Hovey Kporsu, speaking on Joy News’ Newsfile on Saturday, said before a landlord puts together a tenancy agreement, sections in the rent act must be considered to prevent one from coming out with a fictitious tenancy agreement with infringes on the rights of tenants.

“In writing the tenancy agreement you should take into consideration the universal consideration of human rights. You have to take into consideration Article 12(2) of the Constitution which spells out the fundamental human right,” he said.

According to Mr Hovey Kporsu, landlords should not expect tenants to comply with any fictitious tenancy agreement that they come out with.

“Just recently some landlords close to Winneba School, name withheld has come out with regulation and in there, he said you cannot have a visitor. This is absolutely fictitious, you are infringing on somebody’s human right,” he cited as a case where a landlord restricted the right of a tenant.

He added that the case was brought to Rent Control for the tenant to be evicted of which it was thrown out because “first of all, he [landlord] didn’t register the tenancy agreement with us for us to go through and make sure we remove all those inadequacies in there.”

He, therefore, advised landlords to visit a rent control department or consult a lawyer to be assisted in drafting the tenancy agreement which will spell out the rights and responsibilities of tenants.

“After you’ve gotten somebody, the first thing you have to do after that is to issue the person with the tenancy agreement before the person pays you the money…You need witnesses, if you are a landlord and you are not aware of this, you have lawyers to consult so that they can draft the tenancy agreement or better still at the rent control department we have samples of this tenancy agreement where you come in. We will explain to you so that you go and mend it to suit you,” he said.