Essential factors and lease clauses for investment property (Part 1) :: Mmegi Online

It is important for prospective tenants to appreciate their value to prospective landlords and take full advantage of their strength to negotiate favourable terms. Of course this does not mean that ‘high value tenants’ should unfairly exploit their strength to the extent that a ‘win-lose’ agreement is drafted in their favour. Some level of reasonableness is legitimately expected from both parties, PAUL MORE* writes

You may not know this but renting out property in Botswana, especially residential property is often fraught with avoidable anomalies. In a good number of instances, it is let without the benefit of a lease. In some cases a lease is drafted, but one or both parties express little or no interest in signing it. A lease is not a nice-to-have or an instrument for use only by business and corporate entities as some people tend to believe.

It is an essential legal tool that regulates and governs the relationship between the tenant (lessee) and the landlord (lessor). Since it is meant to unambiguously spell out obligations of both parties, in theory, it should minimise possibility of friction between lessees and lessors (the two contracting parties) during the course of the lease and at its termination. Agreed terms are susceptible to breach by one or both parties, hence the need to have a living document that would come in handy when there is a need to remind the parties of their legally enforceable obligations.

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