1. Who is responsible for obtaining an Occupancy Certificate?

The Landlord is responsible to obtain an Occupancy Certificate for the Shopping Centre. The Tenant determines the layout of its leased shop and therefore the responsibility lies with the Tenant to ensure that the layout complies with all health, emergency and building regulations as required by the Local City Council and Building Act (Act No. 103 of 1977 / SABS-0400-1990).

The Landlord should ensure that all his tenants have valid Occupancy Certificates based on the current layout of the individual premises.

2. Why should a Shop have an approved Shop Layout and current Occupancy Certificate?

All shops should have an approved shop layout plan indicating that the layout complies with Act No. 103 of 1977 / SABS-0400-1990.
This shows that the layout complies with all health, emergency and building regulations as stipulated in the Act.

For example, if a customer walks into a shop front and gets injured, the shop owner or Landlord can be held liable for damages. Should the customer elect to sue the Landlord, the Landlord can in turn sue the Shop owner for damages in the event of the Shop owner not being in procession of a valid Occupancy Certificate. In addition the customer is within their rights to sue the Local Council based on the premises that the Council is the custodian of the municipal laws and is obliged to apply them to ensure that Centres and Buildings comply with all health, emergency and building regulations.

3. When should a new Shop Layout be submitted for approval and an Occupancy certificate be obtained?

Should a layout of a premises change, the new layout should be approved by the City Council.

Should the shop layout stay the same as the previous approved layout, the new Tenant does not have to resubmit his shop layout for approval as the existing Occupancy Certificate is still valid.

The implications of the above are best illustrated by the following examples:

Shop 1 has a Fashion store as a Tenant with an Occupancy Certificate issued based on the submitted Layout and Occupancy classification. The second Tenant takes occupation and is a Fast Food operation. The new Tenant does not resubmit its layout plans to the local City Council. The implications are far reaching on the Center’s Fire and Health Compliance not to mention the impact of additional weight of the cooking equipment on the slab.

In another example the Fashion Store decided that they need more shelves and add 5 additional display rows. This affects the compliance of the shop and a revised plan illustrating the changes must be submitted for approval. The additional display rows may compromise the Fire compliance by obstructing the escape routes.

4. What measure / actions do or can the authorities take with non complying tenants?

A shop can be closed by the local City Council and be charged a daily penalty until such time that the layout has been approved.

5. Can a new Building / Shopping Centre, once completed, be approved for trading if one of the tenants does not have an Occupancy Certificate?

No, the Shopping Centre can be closed and the Landlord could be charged a daily penalty until the layout of the Tenant’s premises or Shopping Centre have been approved by the local City Council.

A Shopping Centre can not open without all the layouts of the different shops being approved and visited by the Building Inspector. Only after the Building Inspector has visited the individual shops and the centre, Occupancy Certificates can be issued.

6. How long does it take to obtain an Occupancy Certificate?

This depends on the City Council but usually takes between 4 to 6 weeks.