Traders under their umbrella body, Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA) have given Parliament a 30 days ultimatum to enact a law which regulates the tenants and landlords.
Speaking to media today, Issa Ssekito (pictured up) the association spokesperson said, the law which is already in the making has over stayed in parliament since 2013 yet they had been promised that by the end of December 2016 it would be in place.
He says if the Parliament does not pass the bill which defines the relationship between the landlord and the tenant in 30 days from today, they will take an industrial action.
The law will not go as far as interfering in what is purely a private affair; but it will go some distance in clipping some powers that landlords have enjoyed over their tenants.
The traders accuse the owners of the premises of hiking rent whenever the dollar rate goes up.
Other traders blamed government and KCCA for failure to put in place standard ground rent, which would be illegal for the landlords to increase.
Causes of eviction
Payment of rent, failure of which is the most common cause of eviction of tenants by landlords, is a tenant’s obligation. According to the Civil Procedures Act, a landlord is entitled to recovering rent due to him or her from a tenant. Jane Namaganda Kiriba, a lawyer with Wetaka, Kibirango & Co. Advocates, says these and other provisions must be spelt out in an agreement between the landlord and the tenant prior to occupying the premises.
While such an agreement can either be verbal or written, Kibira advises that it is important the agreement is in written form for evidential or future reference.
