Wakilii

Bazara and Others v Aden Municipal Council (Civil Appeal No. 74 of 1956)

East African Court of Appeal · [1950] EACA 388 · 1950 Appeal Dismissed AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Appeal from the Supreme Court of Aden dismissing an appeal from a rating valuation assessment
Decision
Appeal dismissed with costs

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

Citator coverage is limited to judgments in the Wakilii corpus and source-matched treatment records. Absence of a signal is not an assertion that the case remains good law.

AI-generated summary. This summary was generated by AI from the full text of the judgment. It may contain errors or omissions—always read the source judgment before relying on it.

Holding

The Court held that where property is let for its full rental value, section 50(2) of the Aden Municipal Ordinance requires the gross value for rating purposes to be the actual rent paid, which in cases of sub-tenancies is the rent paid by the sub-tenant. The highest rent actually paid is presumed to represent the full rental value absent evidence that it is abnormally high or low. Rent calculated by reference to business turnover is valid rent for rating purposes.

Outcome

Appeal dismissed with costs

Facts

The appellants owned property in Aden comprising ground floor offices and shop, and first floor offices. The ground floor was let to Arab Navigation and Transport Company at Sh. 112/50 per month. That company sub-let the ground floor offices, together with other premises elsewhere, to Ethiopian Airlines at a rent averaging Sh. 3,164/74 per month for 20 months, calculated as 2% of the airline's total sales. The Municipality apportioned three-fifths of this rent to the ground floor offices. The rating valuation was based on the rent paid by the airline to the company, not the rent paid by the company to the appellants. The appellants objected to this valuation. The Valuation Committee maintained the assessment at Sh. 32,388 annual gross value. The Supreme Court dismissed the appellants' first appeal.

Issues

  1. Whether the gross value for rating purposes should be based on the rent paid by the sub-tenant to the tenant or the rent paid by the tenant to the property owner under section 50 of the Aden Municipal Ordinance.
  2. Whether rent calculated by reference to business turnover constitutes rent for rating valuation purposes.

Orders

  • Appeal dismissed.
  • Costs awarded to the respondent.

Rules and key headnotes

Rating Valuation — Interpretation of Gross Value — Actual Rent versus Notional Rent
Section 50 of the Aden Municipal Ordinance provides two bases for assessing gross value for rating purposes: where property is not let for its full rental value, the value is the notional rent under subsection (1); where property is let for its full rental value, the value is the actual rent under subsection (2).
Rating Valuation — Sub-tenancies — Determination of Relevant Rent
Where property is subject to sub-tenancies, the terms 'landlord' and 'tenant' in section 50(2) include sub-lessors and sub-lessees, and the relevant rent for rating purposes is the rent paid by the sub-tenant to the sub-lessor, not the rent paid by the head tenant to the property owner.
Rating Valuation — Full Rental Value — Presumption from Actual Rent
Where multiple rents are paid for the same premises due to sub-tenancies, the highest rent actually paid is presumed in the absence of other evidence to represent the full rental value for rating purposes under section 50(2).
Rating Valuation — Full Rental Value — Rebutting the Presumption
The presumption that the highest rent actually paid represents the full rental value may be displaced by evidence showing that the rent is abnormally low or abnormally high, but such cases are unusual and require proof that the rent is not a true commercial rent paid at arm's length.
Rating Valuation — Rent Calculated by Reference to Turnover
Rent calculated by reference to the business turnover of the occupying tenant constitutes valid rent for rating valuation purposes and may be used to determine the full rental value under section 50(2).

Legislation cited (5)

  • Aden Municipal Ordinance (Laws of Aden, 1955, Cap. 102) s.50(1)
  • Aden Municipal Ordinance (Laws of Aden, 1955, Cap. 102) s.50(2)
  • Aden Municipal Ordinance s.55
  • Aden Municipal Ordinance s.56
  • Aden Rent Restriction Ordinance

Cases cited (3)

  • Churchward v Ford (1857) 2 H & N 450
  • Thompson v Commissioners of Inland Revenue [Tax Cases Vol XX part 5, 319]
  • R v Westbrook (1847) 10 QB 178

Full judgment

↓ Download PDF

The original judgment as reported. Read the original PDF before relying on any passage.

Bazara and Others v Aden Municipal Council (Civil Appeal No. 74 of 1956) [1950] EACA 388 (1 January 1950)
Source: this page presents Wakilii’s issue analysis and metadata for a publicly reported Ugandan judgment. Any AI-generated summary is marked as such. Judgment text is sourced from the Uganda Legal Information Institute (ulii.org). Wakilii is not affiliated with ULII.