A Review of Rent Control Legislation in Botswana

Abstract

The subject “Rent Control” is very wide as it covers many areas. It may deal with the control of rents in respect of agricultural land, industrial property or it may be limited either to dwelling houses or commercial buildings. For the purposes of this paper, “rent control” focuses on the dwelling or residential houses and commercial buildings in the country. The obvious reason is that the current rent control legislation is limited to those properties because of the apparent high level of the rents they attract.The use of legislation to control rents of premises is a product of the twentieth century. In England, for instance, the first attempt to control rents was in 1915, during the First World War. It is interesting to note that the first legislation on rent control in England coincided with the outbreak of the First World War. Rent controls in Nigeria and Ghana were also influenced by the First and Second World Wars respectively. The reason for the introduction of rent control legislation to coincide with world wars is not hard to find. Wars generally create shortages of a number of essential goods because many resources are diverted to the production of armaments and the labour force is channelled to the battle front. Housing is one of the needs of mankind which usually becomes scarce as a result of the outbreak of a major war like the last two World Wars.