THE first of 10 households in Lautoka to be evicted from their homes by way of a court order vacated their home in Waiyavi last week.

The court order applied by the iTaukei Lands Trust Board was for tenants who have accumulated arrears of up to $55,940.41.

Almost $2million in total is owed to the North West regional office.

TLTB North Western regional manager Soloveni Masi said because of the big amount of money owed by the tenants, a court order was sought by TLTB to evict them.

“These are people who have not paid their land rent for more than five years despite TLTB issuing notices and reminding them to pay their dues,” he said.

“When we found that they would not be able to pay their arrears we applied for a court order.

“We were left with no choice because we have an obligation to pay the landowners.”

He said the remaining tenants would be asked to vacate their properties over the coming weeks.

“The first tenant had a small property so it was easy for us to move in and ask them to vacate their property, however, some of the other tenants have much bigger properties.

“We want to give them enough time to move before we issue the court order.

“We plan to carry out this exercise every Friday until the entire tenants move out.”

Mr Masi said the North West region had the most number of native land leases with 11,704. He said the leases covered a land area of 81,868 acres.

The total rent paid from the region is billed at $7,349,042.421.