City tycoon Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia has commended President Yoweri Museveni for signing the Landlord and Tenant Bill into law, saying that the law protects both tenants and landlords.
“The tenants will now know their rights. It will reduce the court cases between the two parties,” he said.
Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia’s Meera Investments Limited is Uganda’s largest property developer with over 300 commercial, retail, industrial and residential properties, largely in Kampala.
On Wednesday, Speaker of Parliament Anita Among confirmed that the President had assented to the Landlord and Tenants Bill 2021 after a meeting at State House in Entebbe.
“Fellow Countrymen and Women, I am pleased to inform you that His Excellency President @KagutaMuseveni has assented to the following Acts, 1. Stamp duty (Amendment) Act, 2022, 2. The Income Tax (Amendment) Act, 2022, 3. The Value Added Tax (Amendment) Act, 2022,” Among tweeted.
The law regulates the relationship between landlords and tenants, reforms and consolidates the law relating to the letting of premises, and provides for the responsibilities of landlords and tenants in respect to the letting of premises.
Amongst other landlords, Sudhir, the proprietor of Meera Investments, Uganda’s largest property development firm, has welcomed the new regulation saying “it will finally bring sanity into the sector.”
Bob Okodi, Amref Health Africa Uganda CFO, On Purpose-Driven Finance and Measuring Impact in Lives, Not Margins“It will check landlords who were not respecting the law and their tenants. Most landlords do not give tenants agreements. We could be the only ones who have consistently given all our tenants agreements for more than 10 years,” Sudhir said.
The just-passed law restricts rent increment of more than 10 per cent annually.
The law also makes it mandatory for all payments of rent to be transacted in local currency, a provision that came as a relief for several traders in Kampala who have stood the test of paying their monthly rent United States Dollars.
Although the landlords are happy with the provision of increasing rent by 10 per cent annually, they expressed concern over the provision that bars them from forcibly evicting tenants who fail to pay rent.
Parliament also passed a provision that the currency of transaction between landlord and tenant shall be in Uganda Shillings.
The new law will also see penalties of up to three months equivalent of rent dues for landlords who are found liable for unlawfully evicting their tenants.
