Rent Cards, Tenancy Registration and Hostels: What Ghanaian tenants and landlords need to know

Ask for your rent card: If you have never received one and your tenancy falls under the applicable requirement, ask your landlord about it:Keep your tenancy agreement: Do not rely only on verbal arrangements, especially when it comes to rent, duration of tenancy and other important terms.

Under Section 20(1) of the Rent Act, 1963 (Act 220), landlords of premises let on a monthly or shorter tenancy are required to issue a rent card to the tenant within seven days after the tenancy begins.

If a landlord cannot provide satisfactory evidence that the required rent card has been issued and maintained, the Department says it may decline or defer the relevant administrative service until the matter is regularised.