April 14, 2021
By Ilyasa Baa
With the assistance of the ruling Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP), a new office dealing with issues arising from tenants and landlords has been commissioned on Maada Bio Street, Reservation area in Kenema city.
The commissioning was graced by government officials including the Leader of Government Business in the House of Parliament, Hon Martin Newma. He said landlord and tenant issue has been a sensitive one and the government, he added, wants to see sanity in all aspects of society.
He called on the initiators to use the four room office space to settle tenancy disputes so that some of these cases would not be a burden on the police and the judiciary.
Executive Director, Tenant Land Lord Francis Niclolas Swarray has emphasized that they want to harmonize their relationship noting that for the past twelve years when he got the idea of setting up the office, a good number of disputes have been settled in various communities including Bo and Freetown.
Board member of Tenant Landlord, who doubles as Civil Society Activist, Augustine A. Sannoh, commended the government for providing a level playfield for the settlement of tenancy disputes within the society.
Legal practitioners in the country have opined that ignorance of the law is not an excuse and that there is no free tenancy in law; meaning landlords are obliged to give six months notice before the expiration of any tenancy agreement. The formation of such office, according to them, is a splendid conception for easy mediation within communities.