A verbal lease “between people who trust each other” holds until the first disagreement. The day someone has to prove the agreed amount, the due date or who pays the water bill, trust is no longer enough — and it is almost always the landlord who discovers there is nothing to show.
A written contract protects both sides. It does not need to be complicated, but it does need to be complete: half of all rental disputes are not about the rent itself, they are about what the contract failed to anticipate.
Download the lease agreement template (PDF, free) — ready to fill in and sign, in English.
Why writing it down changes everything
Two situations that come up constantly:
A tenant leaves after two years and asks for the deposit back. The landlord believes it covers damage. With no inventory taken at move-in, nobody can establish the condition the property was handed over in — and the landlord loses, because proving the damage is their burden.
A landlord wants to raise the rent after three years. The tenant refuses, citing a verbal agreement of “no increase for five years”. With no written revision clause, the discussion has no anchor and ends badly.
In both cases, three lines in a contract would have been enough.
The essential clauses
1. Full identity of both parties
Full names, date and place of birth, national ID or passport number, address and phone — for landlord and tenant alike. A contract signed “Mr. John” cannot support any proceedings.
If the property is jointly owned (co-ownership, inheritance), every owner must appear and sign, or one of them must hold a written mandate. This is a classic source of invalidity.
2. Precise description of the property
Addresses in Cameroon are rarely expressed as a street number. Be descriptive: neighbourhood, locality, landmarks, apartment or building number, floor. Add the exact composition: number of rooms, outbuildings, parking space, yard, individual or shared meter.
A poorly described property is a property that cannot be identified before a judge.
3. The intended use
This is the clause people forget most often, and one of the most consequential. Residential premises and business premises do not fall under the same regime: commercial leases are governed by the OHADA Uniform Act on General Commercial Law, with its own rules on duration, renewal and eviction compensation.
State in writing whether the property is let to live in, to run a business, or both. A tenant who opens a shop inside a residential let changes the nature of the contract — and their rights along with it.
4. Duration and renewal
Start date, end date, and what happens at expiry: automatic rollover or express renewal. Specify the notice period on each side and its form (in writing, hand delivered against signature, or registered letter).
A notice whose date cannot be proven does not exist.
5. Rent: amount, frequency, due date, payment method
The amount in figures and in words. The frequency. The exact day it falls due — “the 5th of each month”, not “early in the month”.
Also state how rent is paid. If it is by Orange Money or MTN MoMo, put the receiving number in the contract: it prevents payments sent to the wrong number, and it turns the operator’s history into the beginning of proof. If it is cash, provide for a receipt every time — see our guide on the rent receipt.
6. Deposit and advance rent: never confuse the two
This is the costliest confusion on the Cameroonian market, and it deserves two explicit lines in the contract.
- The deposit (security deposit) is money held. It does not pay rent: it secures against damage and arrears, and it is returned at the end of the lease.
- Advance rent is a prepayment. It extinguishes future months of rent.
Many leases mention “deposit: 6 months” without saying whether those six months will be returned or consumed. At move-out, each side defends its own reading. Write each amount separately, what it covers, and the deadline for returning the deposit after the move-out inventory.
7. Charges: who pays what
Water, electricity, refuse collection, security, common area maintenance, septic tank emptying, generator. For each item: landlord or tenant.
Address the very common case of shared meters: how the bill is split, on what basis, and who presents it. An unassigned charge will eventually be argued over.
8. The inventory of condition
An annex, signed by both parties on the day the keys change hands, room by room, with meter readings and dated photographs. Provide explicitly that a move-out inventory will be drawn up in the same form.
It is the only document that makes it possible to say, two years later, what is fair wear and tear and what is damage.
9. Repairs
Who repairs what. Common practice separates routine upkeep (tenant: seals, bulbs, small leaks) from major repairs (landlord: roof, structure, plumbing). Write it down, with a threshold in FCFA if you want to remove all ambiguity.
The clauses people forget — and that cost dearly
The language of the contract. Cameroon is bilingual. If your tenant is anglophone or foreign, a contract written in a language they do not master is a fragile contract. Draft it in both languages, and state which one prevails if the interpretations diverge.
Rent revision. How often, within what limit, with what notice. Without a clause, every increase becomes a negotiation.
Subletting and hosting. Allowed, forbidden, or subject to written consent. Distinguish hosting a relative from paid subletting: these are not the same thing.
What happens if the property is sold. State that the lease continues with the buyer. It reassures the tenant and avoids a painful conversation the day ownership changes.
Notification details. The WhatsApp number and email address where due notices, reminders and receipts will be sent, with an obligation to report any change. Without this clause, a tenant can claim they never received the reminders.
What a lease cannot do
A clause can be written, signed, and still unenforceable.
There is no eviction without a judge. No clause allows a landlord to change the locks, cut off water or electricity, or have a tenant’s belongings removed, even after months of arrears. These acts expose the landlord to proceedings — and turn a winnable case against them. The route runs through formal notice, then the court. We cover that escalation in reminding a late tenant.
A blanket waiver of the tenant’s rights holds no better. A clause stripping the occupier of every remedy is the kind a court sets aside.
Signature, copies, safekeeping
As many original copies as there are parties, plus one if the property is jointly owned. Every page initialled, the last one signed with the handwritten words “read and approved”, dated and placed. Annexes (inventory, house rules, plan) numbered and signed too.
Keep a digital copy. A single paper contract in a drawer is a contract you lose — and a lost lease is worth a verbal one.
The template to download
We provide a residential lease agreement template covering all the clauses above, ready to fill in and sign.
It is a reference document, not legal advice: every situation has its particulars, and a lease covering a significant amount always benefits from being reviewed by a lawyer.
The simplest route: generate it
Filling in a template by hand takes half an hour per lease — and offers a fresh chance to make a mistake every time.
With Bailor Pro, the contract is generated automatically when the lease is created: every clause above, amounts pulled from the property record, in French or English, ready to sign. The inventory, receipts and payment history stay attached to the same file.
The tenant, for their part, finds their lease and receipts in the Bailor app — without having to ask.