THE awareness of rental discrimination – especially towards Indians – has been rising lately as people coming out to share their stories everywhere.
This is also prominent on rental sites as half the listings have race preferential being Chinese and Malays. Even if it’s not stated, upon contact renters or agents will reject Indians.
While it is frowned upon as a racist act, the root cause of the problem is still not addressed. Many landlords are afraid to rent because they have had bad past experience with their tenants who either do not pay their rent on time or have left the place in bad conditions that has made them spend a hefty amount in repairs.
As long as these real concerns are not looked into, landlords will resort to some sort of profiling in the interest to protect their investment and discrimination will take place regardless of the awareness.
This has prompted Bukit Gasing state lawmaker Rajiv Rishyakaran to urge the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (KPKT) to expedite the creation of a landlord-tenant tribunal.
“Establishing such tribunal will allow both landlord and renters to seek quick redress to their grouses such as unpaid rent or repairs/maintenance that are not done,” he pointed out.
“Typically, tribunals as these do not need lawyers or hefty court fees, and cases can be filed by layman and results/adjudication of the cases should be done relatively quickly.”
In fact, most countries including the UK, New Zealand and South Africa already have similar tribunals in place to specifically deal with tenant-landlord issues with some countries even having specific laws and legislations for tenancy.
Going through the process of hiring a lawyer to sue tenants who have behaved irresponsibly and gone against the property agreement will cost a lot while getting a hearing date at the court may take months.
This is a hassle for landlords to go through in order to deal with such tenants. Having a system that takes too long becomes unworthy of the hassle to keep an open mind.
“Such a tribunal will eventually cause landlords to feel safer to rent their property to anyone without racial profiling,” opined Rajiv. “If they are wronged, justice will be served by the tribunal and it creates a sense of security for the landlords.”
This works both ways as the rights of the tenants are being protected, too. For example, when the landlord delays in fixing a broken toilet or a leaky roof, tenants can seek redress easily.
The elimination of worry and uncertainties will help remove a huge part of racial prejudice as everyone is held accountable for their actions.
“Hereby, I strongly urge the formation of a tribunal of housing that works efficiently to help end the racial discrimination in the property rental market,” Rajiv added. – Dec 18, 2020
