Landlords Summarily Evicting Tenants is Unlawful
John Briceño
The Leader of the Opposition who is the co-chair of the Oversight Committee joined the Prime Minister at a press conference this afternoon. There have been numerous reports of property-owners evicting tenants during this worrying time. Many have lost their jobs as the economy continues to reel from the COVID-19 catastrophe. Opposition Leader John Briceño calls on all landlords to have a heart given the unfortunate circumstance, aside from the fact that it is unlawful to summarily evict a tenant for failure to pay rent without due notice.
John Briceño, Leader of the Opposition
“The issue of rent, landlords; there are a lot of landlords that are kicking people out of their rooms because they can‘t pay their rent. This is not, I find this not only illegal but immoral, that in a time of crisis you are going to kick out poor people out of their homes, out of the rooms that they are renting. And what some of these people are doing, they are cutting off the water and the electricity. I am asking that in government, if we could send the police to go after these people to ensure that they do not cut of their light, they do not cut off their water and mek we work out wahn payment plan with these people that three months later, things di get back on track that then these people could work out a payment plan. But we cannot allow these unscrupulous landlords, especially some of them that are in slums, you know, dehn just di rent dehn ya rooms and tek advantage of poor people. We cannot allow that to happen. The prime minister and I have spoken about it and he agreed with me that we are going to do everything possible to ensure that they do not kick out anybody from their rooms. So I am appealing, especialy to the people in San Pedro right now that there are a lot of people that would like to get out of San Pedro and go home but cannot leave because of the lockdown but cannot leave because they don‘t have money. Don‘t kick out these people. And the same thing is happening here in Belize City and in other places, people don‘t have work. Everything is starting to slowly shut down, stores are closing down, buses are not running, so people, even if they want to come to work can‘t come to work. So it‘s just a natural progression. And we have to ensure that we do this in an orderly fashion. We are going to fight for you, and I am not saying me personally, but with the prime minister and myself and the team, we are going to ensure that we protect you and ensure that we can go through this together, and god willing and with prayers and faith and hope and sticking it out together we are going to come through this crisis.”
