What is a Tenancy agreement?

This is a contract between the landlord and the tenant who wants to live in or utilize the property for an agreed period of time and for an agreed payment.

The agreement may be made:

Where the rent is 500,000 Uganda Shillings or more, the agreement should be in writing or in the form of a data message for it to be enforceable.

Upon the tenancy agreement being signed by both parties, the landlord should give a copy of it to the tenant.

Where a tenancy agreement is not in writing, the landlord is mandated to keep a record of the following information:  particulars of the tenant(s), the premises occupied by the tenant(s), details of the immigration status if the tenant is a non-citizen, details of the rent payable & manner in which it is payable.

Upon putting the above mentioned information together, the landlord should give a copy of that record to the tenant within 14 days of the tenant occupying the premises.

NOTE: A landlord is barred by the law from entering into a tenancy agreement with someone who does not provide their national identification or any other identification document (e.g. passport, driving permit, certified student identification card). It is therefore mandatory for the tenant to provide a form of identification to the landlord before they can rent the premises.