City traders give 9-day ultimatum on rent Bill

Kampala.

City traders under their union, Kampala City Traders Association (Kacita), have issued a nine-day ultimatum to Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga, to present a revised law on rent of business premises or take industrial action.

“The matter has been given a deadline and this is the 6th of July where we need the Speaker to have come up with a definite date on when they are starting to deliberate or what time they will have finished a law on landlords and tenants relationship,” Kacita spokesperson Issa Sekito said on Tuesday during the association’s 16th Annual General Meeting in Kampala.

Mr Sekito said it is irresponsible for the government to rely on the Rent Restriction Act which was enacted in 1949 to consolidate the law relating to the control of rent of dwelling houses and business premises.

“What reason can the Members of Parliament give for not having a law which is vital and talks about tenancy? People are being harassed through arbitrary electricity bills, being evacuated from buildings without warnings, harassed through lack of contracts and evidence of payments,” he further said.

The ultimatum follows vain efforts by Kacita to ensure ministry of Lands and Urban Development, and Parliament come up with the corresponding law.

Mr Everest Kayondo, the Kacita chairman, said the Speaker told the association leaders during a visit to Parliament that she has never seen the aforementioned Bill, even after the ministry has been allegedly working on it.

Businesspeople want the Bill to tackle issues on increment of rental fees, payment of rental fees in dollars that is increasing the cost of doing business and put in place a mediation unit to arbitrate conflicts between tenants and landlords.

“It is not to set the amount, one of the proposals is that when a businessperson rents your premises, he spends at least a year working before you increase the rent fee,” Mr Kayondo said.

He added: “Most of us pay rent but because you do not get receipts, Uganda Revenue Authority rejects your returns under claims that you do not pay rent and there is no tenancy agreement.”

The traders also called for a regulation on wholesaling and retailing of electricity because according to Mr Kayondo, “people are making a big kill” from what Umeme and landlords charge in business premises.

Current practice allows landlords to determine rates and is exposing traders to charges as high as Shs2,000 per unit.
Mr Brian Yesigye, the chief executive officer of Bravo Shoes, admitted that business is bad and said Umeme needs to intervene.

“Many landlords are cheating tenants and the best way to change this is Umeme taking over the collection of money directly from the building without going through the landlord. If they can sub distribute the meters to each tenant, we can get our money to Umeme so I am charged for what I use,” he said.

Current law

The Rent Restriction Act was enacted in 1949 to consolidate the law relating to the control of rents of dwelling houses and business premises.

According to Section 2(1) of the Act, no owner or lessee of a dwelling house or premises shall let or sublet that dwelling house or premises at a rent which exceeds the standard rent.

The new law, if passed, should end the fights between traders and landlords who are currently unhappy over rent increment by their landlords