CHAPTER 193
LANDLORD AND TENANT (BUSINESS PREMISES) ACT
Arrangement of Sections
to provide security of tenure for tenants occupying property for business, professional and certain other purposes; to enable such tenants to obtain new tenancies in certain cases; and to provide for matters connected therewith and incidental thereto.
[1st January, 1972]
This Act may be cited as the Landlord and Tenant (Business Premises) Act.
In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires-
"business" means a trade, an industry, a profession or an employment, and includes any activity carried on by a body of persons, whether corporate or unincorporate, but does not include farming on land;
"court" means-
(a) in relation to premises for which the rent demanded exceeds one hundred thousand Kwacha per year, the High Court; or
(b) in relation to all other premises, a subordinate court of the first class;
[Subs by s 2 of Act 5 of 2020.]
"current tenancy" has the meaning assigned to it by sub-section (1) of section 6;
"date of termination" has the meaning assigned to it by sub-section (1) of section 5;
"holding", in relation to a tenancy, means the property comprised in the tenancy excluding such part thereof as is not occupied by the tenant, his agents or employees for the purposes of a business;
"landlord", in relation to a tenancy, means the person who under the tenancy is, as between himself and the tenant, for the time being entitled to the rents and profits of the demised premises payable under the tenancy and, in a case where the reversion immediately expectant on the tenancy is mortgaged and the mortgagee is in possession thereof or has appointed a receiver of the rents and profits thereof, means that mortgagee;
"lease" means a lease, under-lease or other tenancy, assignment operating as a lease or under- lease, or an agreement for such lease, under-lease, tenancy or assignment;
"mortgage" includes a charge or lien, and "mortgagor" and "mortgagee" shall be construed accordingly;
"notice to quit" means a notice to terminate a tenancy (whether a periodical tenancy or a tenancy for a term of years certain) given in accordance with the terms (whether express or implied) of that tenancy;
"premises" means premises let under a tenancy for the purposes of carrying on business thereat;
"rent" includes any periodical sum payable by the tenant to the landlord in connection with his tenancy (whether under the lease or otherwise) in respect of the lighting, heating, board, furniture or other services; and any reference to the rent payable under a lease shall be construed as including a reference to any such sum as aforesaid;
"repairs" includes any work of maintenance, decoration or restoration, and references to repairing, to keeping or yielding up in repair and to state of repair shall be construed accordingly;
"reversion", in relation to a tenancy, means the interest which, not being a mortgage term and apart from any such term, is for the time being in reversion immediately expectant upon the termination of the tenancy;
"service charge" means a charge for any services provided;
"services", in relation to a tenancy, means the use of water, light or power, conservancy, sewerage facilities, sweeper, watchman, telephone, or other amenity or facility available to the tenant, and the right of access to any place or accommodation accorded to the tenant by reason of his occupation of the premises comprised in the tenancy, but shall not include the supply of meals to the tenant;
"tenancy" means a tenancy of business premises (whether written or verbal) for a term of years certain not exceeding 21 years, created by a lease or under-lease, by an agreement for or assignment of a lease or under-lease, by a tenancy agreement or by operation of law, and includes a sub-tenancy but does not include any relationship between a mortgagor and mortgagee as such, and references to the granting of a tenancy and to demised property shall be construed accordingly;
"tenant", in relation to a tenancy, means the person for the time being entitled to the tenancy, whether or not he is in occupation of the holding, and includes a sub-tenant;
"terms", in relation to a tenancy, includes conditions.
(1) Subject to the provisions of sub-section (2), this Act shall apply to all tenancies in Zambia.
(2) This Act shall not apply to-
(a) agricultural holdings;
(b) premises let or used exclusively for residential purposes;
(c) premises let by Government or a local authority;
(d) premises held by a tenant under a tenancy for a term of years certain exceeding 21 years;
(e) premises or part of the premises comprised in a tenancy, in which a tenant is carrying on a business in breach of a prohibition (however expressed) of use for business purposes which subsists under the terms of the tenancy and extends to the whole of those premises, unless the immediate landlord or his predecessor in title has consented to the breach or the immediate landlord has acquiesced therein.
In this paragraph the reference to a prohibition of use for business purposes does not include a prohibition of use for the purposes of a specified business, or of use for purposes of any but a specified business;
(f) premises comprised in a tenancy granted by reason that the tenant was the holder of an office, appointment or employment from the grantor of the tenancy and continuing only so long as the tenant holds such office, appointment or employment, or terminable by the grantor on the tenant's ceasing to hold it, or coming to an end at a time fixed by reference to the time at which the tenant ceases to hold it;
(g) premises comprised in a tenancy granted for a term certain not exceeding three months, unless-
(i) the tenancy contains provisions for renewing the term or for extending it beyond three months from its beginning; or
(ii) the tenant has been in occupation for a period which, together with any period during which any predecessor in the carrying on of the business carried on by the tenant was in occupation, exceeds six months.
4. Continuation of tenancies to which this Act applies and grant of new tenancies
(1) A tenancy to which this Act applies shall not come to an end unless terminated in accordance with the provisions of this Act; and, subject to the provisions of section 10, the tenant under such a tenancy may apply to the court for a new tenancy-
(a) if the landlord has given notice under section 5 to terminate the tenancy; or
(b) if the tenant has made a request for a new tenancy in accordance with section 6.
(2) The provisions of sub-section (1) shall not prevent the coming to an end of a tenancy by notice to quit given by the tenant, by surrender or forfeiture, or by the forfeiture of a superior tenancy.
(3) Notwithstanding anything in sub-section (1)-
(a) where a tenancy to which this Act applies ceases to be such a tenancy, it shall not come to an end by reason only of the cesser, but if it was granted for a term of years certain and has been continued by sub-section (1), then (without prejudice to the termination thereof in accordance with any terms of the tenancy) it may be terminated by not less than three nor more than six months' notice in writing given by the landlord to the tenant;
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