Saturday, 8 February 2014 00:02
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The housing problem of families in Colombo will be solved in the near future and the problem will not be passed on to future governments, Construction, Engineering Services, Housing and Common Amenities Minister Wimal Weerawansa said.
The Minister made this observation participating at a mobile service at Pradeepa Hall, Gunasinghepura on Monday (3 January) to solve housing problems of 1,800 families living in rented houses.
Minister Weerawansa said a large number of families live in rented houses have to face problems like paying the rent among other things.
“There are three types of families living in rented houses. They are the first tenant of the house, the second tenant with legal permission of the first tenant and families without any provable tenancy to these houses,” he said.
Before providing deeds for these houses, ownership related problems have to be solved, the Minister said.
“The first step is providing legal ownership of houses. The National Housing Development Authority (NHDA) will provide tenancy ownership for these families,” Weerawansa said.
He said the tenancy of first tenants’ houses will be given to them without payment. “If they want to hand over this property to one of their children, the tenancy of the house will be given to a child with the permission of other family members with a payment of Rs. 1,000,” he said.
“Tenancy of the second tenants who has legal documents to prove the agreement with the first tenant and the residentship of more than 10 years will be renewed with a payment of Rs. 10,000. The rent of their houses will be increased 20 times,” Minister Weerawansa said.
He added that the tenancy of families who do not have a legal document to prove their tenancy or details about the first tenant of the houses will be renewed with a payment of Rs. 25,000. The rent of these houses will also be increased. “Though the NHDA has the authority to evacuate these families as they do not have any legal document to prove their tenancy, we will never do such a thing as they are the people of this country,” the minister said.
“Housing deeds of families living in unauthorised flats will also be provided under a special procedure while ownership problems of people living in Colombo will be solved in the near future,” he said.
