NHC wants tenants evicted from Mombasa estate over Sh58m rent arrears

The National Housing Corporation (NHC) has gone to court seeking the eviction of 146 tenants from Changamwe estate over millions of shillings in rentarrears.

Last week, NHC lawyer Zebida Mwangi told the High Court in Mombasa that the tenants owed the housingcorporation Sh58,496,316, which they were unwilling to pay.

She said the tenants were denying the corporation resources to build more houses for other Kenyans.

Expired lease

“Since 2008 to date the tenants have filed suits and applications with the aim of convoluting the issues between them and the corporation, and unlawfully interfering with the right to collect the accrued rent,” said Ms Mwangi.

She said the lease agreement had expired the moment the tenants refused to pay the rent due and arrears, adding that on March 27, 2014, the tenants had consented with the landlord to periodically increase rent.

Mwangi told Justice PJ Otieno that the tenants had refused to pay up and instead filed various suits in courtto interfere with the corporation’s statutory obligation to collect accrued rent.

She said NHC had appointed a firm of auctioneers to attach the tenants’ properties with rent arrears but had been met with resistance.

“The tenants (plaintiff) in several instances and in abuse of court process frustrated the efforts to collect accrued rent arrears,” said Mwangi.

She said some of the tenants had entered the corporation houses in 1988, when the monthly rentpayable was Sh800.

The lawyer said the landlord increased the rates gradually and now the rent payable for the two-bedroom houses was Sh7,500, which was last reviewed in 2005.

“The rest of the tenants in the estate have been paying the said amount of Sh7,500 as from the said date, and it is only some of the tenants who have refused. Tenancy was subject to an escalation clause,” said Mwangi.

Legal action

The judge urged the tenants to pay up outstanding rentas required by law or risk legal action.

“If you are staying in someone’s house, you should pay rent. The moment you fail to pay the rent you cease to become a tenant and become a trespasser,” he said, adding that the court was not in a position to interfere, but it was prudent for rent arrears to be paid as any other dispute was sorted out later.

“It is the tenant’s legal obligation to pay rent and it is not our position to protect anyone.”

However, the tenant’s lawyer, Elaine Mukoya, said the dispute could be solved by involving all the parties without delving into court suits.

She said it was necessary to determine how much each tenant owed NHC before resorting to eviction.

“There are those who pay Sh7,500 and Sh2,500. The Sh58 million is a huge figure and we need to know who is being charged what,” she said.