A tenancy agreement is the only thing standing between you and a landlord’s memory of what you agreed. In a market where you may hand over 12 months of rent in one payment, that document is doing a great deal of work.

Get one in writing before any money changes hands.

The clauses that matter

The term must match the advance

If you pay 12 months, the agreement must state a 12-month term with explicit start and end dates.

This is the single most common way tenants lose money: paying two years against an agreement describing one, then being asked to renew twelve months in.

The parties

Full legal names, and they must match the ID and the ownership documents. A tenancy signed by “the caretaker” is not a tenancy signed by the landlord.

The property

Described precisely. Which unit, which floor, which rooms. Include the GhanaPostGPS digital address.

If the tenancy includes a parking space, a store room or use of the yard, name them. If it does not, expect not to have them.

Rent and increases

The amount, when it is due, and how it is paid. Critically: when and by how much it can be increased, and how much notice you get.

An agreement silent on increases is an agreement that lets the landlord name a number at renewal when you have nowhere else to go.

Utilities

Who pays for what, and — this matters more than people expect — whether the meters are separate.

A shared ECG meter with the landlord is a guaranteed recurring dispute. So is a water bill split by an informal estimate. Insist on separate meters, or on a written method for splitting.

Electricity and prepaid meters

Repairs

Who is responsible for what. Ordinarily the landlord handles structural repairs and the tenant handles minor maintenance, but say so explicitly.

Include a mechanism: how you report a problem, and what happens if the landlord does not act.

Outstanding works

If the landlord has promised to finish the tiling, fit a gate, connect the water or install a polytank, that promise belongs in the agreement with a completion date and a consequence. Otherwise it will not happen.

Notice and termination

How much notice each party must give. What happens to unused advance rent if you leave early, or if the landlord ends the tenancy.

The Rent Act sets out grounds for recovery of possession, but an explicit clause saves an argument.

Subletting and guests

Whether you may sublet, and whether long-staying guests are permitted. Worth knowing before your family visits for two months.

Tenancy agreement template

What the law gives you

The Rent Act 1963 (Act 220) applies whether or not your agreement mentions it.

  • Advance rent is capped at 6 months on a monthly tenancy, under section 25(5). Widely ignored, and still the law. — The rent advance
  • Eviction requires due process. A landlord may not simply change the locks, remove your possessions, or cut off your water and power to force you out. That is unlawful.
  • The Rent Control Department exists to mediate disputes, and mediation is free.

Register the tenancy

A tenancy agreement should be lodged with the Rent Control Department within 30 days.

Most tenancies in Accra are never registered. Registering yours costs little and creates an independent record of what you paid, for what period, and on what terms — which is precisely the evidence you will want if the relationship goes wrong.

Before you sign

  • Read every clause. Yes, all of them.
  • Confirm the term matches the advance you are paying
  • Check names against ID and ownership documents
  • Confirm the meter arrangements
  • Get outstanding works written in with dates
  • Photograph the whole property at handover, with timestamps, including every existing defect
  • Take meter readings at handover and photograph them
  • Get a signed receipt for the advance — Template
  • Keep a signed original. Not a photograph of one — an original.

Have a lawyer read it if the sum is large

On a two-year advance, a few hundred cedis for an hour of a lawyer’s time is trivial insurance. Many will review a standard tenancy for a modest fixed fee.

When things go wrong

Talk first. Most disputes are misunderstandings about who pays for what, and are cheaper to resolve over a conversation.

Then write. Put the complaint in writing, keep a copy, and note the date. A paper trail changes how the next conversation goes.

Then the Rent Control Department. Free mediation, and they take unlawful eviction and excessive advance demands seriously.

Then court, if the amount justifies it.

If you are being illegally evicted — locks changed, belongings removed, utilities cut — that is a police matter as well as a Rent Control one. 191.