Takoradi,Dec.7,GNA-A Principal Rent Officer at the Rent Control Department in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis, Mr. Twum Ampofo, has said the oil discovery in the Western Region had turn local landlords into shylocks. He said complaints lodged at the department points to that fact that most landlords were ejecting their tenants in order to convert them rental apartments and rooms into offices and stalls for the oil companies and businesses.

This, he said, had resulted in litigations between landlords and tenants.

Mr. Ampofo made this known in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Takoradi on Tuesday.

Mr. Ampofo noted that, his outfit had invited the feuding parties for amicable settlements and urged persons who were facing wrongful ejection and abuse of their fundamental human rights to report to the Department for peaceful resolution.

He said legally if a landlord wanted to eject a tenant, the former must serve a quit notice to the latter one month earlier so that the tenant could look elsewhere for another accommodation.

Mr. Ampofo also indicated that landlords were not supposed to take more than six months rent advance from tenants. He admonished tenants to always look out for basic facilities such as water, electricity, kitchen, toilet facility and bathroom before renting the place.