Another San Juan market vendor claims victory

ANOTHER vendor at the San Juan public market will receive over $15,000 in rent he overpaid when the San Juan/Laventille Regional Corporation “illegally” increased the rent for stalls.

Dry goods vendor Bassant Sankar will receive $15,580 after Justice Kevin Ramcharan granted him two declarations that the corporation acted illegally, irrationally and unreasonably by breaching the Municipal Corporations Act when it increased rent for market stalls.

On Monday, another judge granted similar declarations to another vendor and ordered that she too be repaid the sums she overpaid in rent.

In October, the corporation had accepted it could not raise the rent for stalls without first amending the market’s bye-laws.

Earlier in August, vendors protested the move, saying the increased rent was almost ten times what was prescribed by law. In 2006, when the bye laws for the market were approved, rent charged was $3 and $5 per day, in some cases and $5 in others.

In 2010, rent increased to $50 per week, per stall or $200 per month. Five years later, rent again increased by $10, and one year later, in June 2016, rent was increased to $800. The vendors said they are struggling to meet expenses which includes buying goods and paying transport costs. The vendors, some 99 in all, are represented by attorneys Gerald Ramdeen, Umesh Maharaj and Dayadai Harripaul.