THE Rent Assessment Board says that between April 2003 and March this year it has settled more than 4,000 disputes between aggrieved tenants and landlords.

“The total written complaints received for the 14 parishes is 4,503,” said Desmond Spence, an investigator assigned to the Rent Board. “.We have complaints for illegal increases, arrears in rental and harassment,” he added.

Most of the complaints were received from St Catherine, which had 1,444, while 1,319 came from Kingston and St Andrew. St Ann had 108; 64 were received from Trelawny; 40 came from Hanover; St Thomas, 167; Portland, 134; St Mary, 93; Westmoreland, 51; Manchester, 183; St James 315; Clarendon, 524; and St Elizabeth, 61.

Among the issues brought to the rent Board by tenants were:

. Increase of more than 7.5 per cent annually, which the board said is illegal.

. Harassment – anything that interferes with the quiet enjoyment of the tenant. These included the changing of locks on doors, locking up the property or taking off doors or windows, removing roofs, disconnecting water or electricity and asking for sexual favours.

Landlords have also taken tenants before the board for arrears in rental. But Spence said where tenants refused or have not paid rent for over 30 days, the landlord can take the matter straight to the court.

He told JIS News, however, that the board had a 95 per cent settlement rate. “You would hardly find us having to refer cases to the courts. Those that are referred to the courts mostly involve the security deposits, where we find that a landlord may not want to refund the deposit because the tenant may have damaged the place.”

While acknowledging that the issue of property owners demanding security deposits was contentious and illegal, Spence said there would be amendments to the rent laws shortly, to make provision for the payment of security deposits.

“The law says that any fee collected that is not rental is illegal, so we know that demanding security deposits is illegal, but because we know that tenants would damage premises and move from place to place owing for utilities etcetera, we are not against a landlord taking a month to protect himself or herself and help offset the extra costs when the tenant leaves,” he said.

Said Spence: “The law states that for all rented premises, the landlord must make an application, we in turn go and inspect the premises to see if the rent that is being charged by the landlord is within the appropriate range or if it needs adjustment.”

However, because of the high demand for rented premises, especially in the Corporate Area and urban St Catherine, landlords in most cases fix the monthly rental.

For commercial premises, however, a landlord can apply for an exemption, which would mean that the premises would no longer be under the control of the Rent Board.

“In these instances the landlord decides on what rental will be charged and disputes will be resolved between landlord and tenant and maybe the court or lawyer,” Spence said.