Vendor goes to court over market fees

A SAN Juan market vendor has made good on threats to take the San Juan/Laventille Regional Corporation to court over rental fees.

Last week, vendor Nanda Permanand filed an application seeking the court’s permission to review the decision of the corporation to increase rent for stalls at the San Juan Public Market.

In the application, which comes up for hearing before Justice Nadia Kangaloo on September 25, Permanand said the rent being demanded by the corporation is in excess of what is prescribed by the Market (San Juan/Laventille) Bye Laws 1996. According to the bye laws, rent is applied to different type of stalls: ranging from $45 per month to $80 per month, depending what is being sold.

Licences to sell are also issued at $25, per year, for meat and fish, and $20 for other goods.

The corporation has increased the rent three times over the last two decades. From 2010-2011, it was$50 per week; 2012-2017, it was $75.00 per week; and from June 2016 to the present it is now $200 per week.

The decision to increase rent affects more than 150 vendors.

Earlier in August, vendors protested the move, saying the increased rent was almost ten times what was prescribed by law.

In the application, Permanand wants the court to declare that the action of the corporation was illegally, unlawful and unreasonable.

She is also asking that all rents paid which are in excess of what was prescribed by the bye laws be returned to her.

Permanand, a dry goods vendor at the market, said she has been selling at the San Juan Public Market for more than 30 years and it is her only source of income. She said she was told if she did not pay the rent, she would be evicted and her stall repossessed.

“I had no other means of earning a living and as such I paid the rent that was charged,” she said in her affidavit.

When the rent was increased again, she said it became difficult to meet expenses since she had to buy goods and pay transport costs.

“I tried my best and paid the rent that was charged by the corporation. At this time after paying the increased rent I would almost often incur a loss after I deducted my expenses,” her affidavit said. After third increase in 2016, Permanand said she and other vendors pleaded with the corporation, but it was still increased and she again was forced to pay.

“I have had to struggle to meet these monthly rental payments,” she said.

She says they are being treated unfairly by the corporation since she has visited other markets and the rent paid by vendors there are in keeping with the bye laws of the respective regional corporations.

“The exorbitant rent that have been charged has resulted in many vendors not being able to meet their monthly rental payments,” she said, adding, “The situation has gotten worse because of the fall in sales in the market. This has been as a result of some vendors who were formally vendors in the market now selling on the streets on the outskirts of the market.”

“I have always attempted to pay the rent due to the corporation for the rental of the stall that I occupy in order to make a living and ply my trade as a market vendor. However, since the rents have been raised to the sum of $800.00 per month there have been months when it has been extremely difficult to meet the monthly rental payments for the rental of my stall at the market,” she said. She is now three months in arrears.

Permanand said she does not know how much longer she can keep her stall at the market.