Column: Robinson On Housing Legislation & More
[Opinion column written by MP Dwayne Robinson]
The Minister of Home Affairs has gone silent on the progress of modernising the Landlord Tenant Act 1974. Housing remains a crisis in Bermuda and one of the ways we can address it, is by encouraging landlords to re-list the property they have withdrawn from the rental market.
This does not mean reducing or removing any rights for the tenant but balancing the Act to incentivize landlords who have taken their apartments off the market to rent them again.
Usually, this stems from a bad experience with a prior tenant whom they struggled to remove or have been told the struggles of being a landlord and have opted out.
We have all heard the stories. A landlord going months and even years without receiving rent. The struggle to evict a bad tenant can take months, and in some cases, years.
There have even been cases where a tenant has left the island without telling the landlord and leaving behind property damage.
These are all real examples that have helped contribute to our reduced housing stock along with massive probate delays, and failure to continue building homes. Naturally there are bad landlords, just as there are bad tenants. We have heard stories of short notice rent increases and notices of eviction and unfair reasons to disqualify people from renting property—such as being a single mother.
Blatant disregard for tenancy rights takes place in Bermuda.
Some landlords are unfortunately withholding their properties from Bermudians in order to obtain an inflated rental income from foreign workers who have housing allowances or higher salaries then the average local.
The OBA, and my colleague, the Shadow Minister of Housing Michael Fahy, has made the case that building higher housing complexes in Hamilton and removing duty on construction materials, along with the creation of a Housing Incentive Act to stimulate private sector building would help alleviate the competitive rental markets in residential areas outside of the City of Hamilton. However, we will continue to have the same rental problems if we do not update our Landlord Tenant Act 1974. We recognise that participating in the rental market can be a daunting experience for both tenants and landlords these days. That must change.
The last Ministerial update I recall was in May of this year and since then there has been very little mentioned. My colleagues and I continue to press for answers in the House of Assembly but there has been no commitments on any date for this legislation to be brought to the House, despite the consultation being extended and ending October of last year. We support robust consultation on such a delicate topic but also want to see the Government follow through on its commitments. I welcome an update from the Minister of Home Affairs on this very important policy commitment.
- Dwayne Robinson, Shadow Minister for Home Affairs
