Is this with an owner themselves or a rental company? Your deposit should usually be kept in an interest bearing savings account by whomever.
1.Read the Rental housing act; there are quite a few clauses that very few Lessors abide by which are actually punishable offences.
2. Quote some of these clauses to Lessor and threaten to report him/her if deposit is not returned within x amount of time.
3.??????
4.Profit!
EDIT
Rental housing ACt 50 of 1999 as amended by the Rental Housing Amendment Act 2007
Section 5 paragraph 3
A lease will be deemed to include terms, enforceable in a competent court, to the effect that-
a) the landlord must furnish the tenant with a written receipt for all payments received by the landlord from the tenant;
b) such receipt must be dated and clearly indicate the address, including the street number and further description, if necessary, of a dwelling in respect of which payment is made, and whether payment has been made for rental, arrears, deposit or otherwise, and specify the period for which payment is made: Provided that a Tribunal may, in exceptional cases, and on application by a landlord, exempt the landlord from providing the information contemplated in this paragraph;
c) the landlord may require a tenant, before moving into the dwelling, to pay a deposit which, at the time, may not exceed an amount equivalent to an amount specified in the agreement or otherwise agreed to between the parties;
d)
the deposit contemplated in paragraph (c) must be invested by the landlord in an interest-bearing account with a financial institution and the landlord must subject to paragraph (g) pay the tenant such interest at the rate applicable to such account which may not be less than the rate applicable to a savings account with that financial institution, and the tenant may during the period of the lease request the landlord to provide him or her with written proof in respect of interest accrued on such deposit, and the landlord must provide such proof on request: Provided that where the landlord is a registered estate agent as provided for in the Estate Agency Affairs Act, 1976 (Act No. 112 of 1976), the deposit and any interest thereon shall be dealt with in accordance with the provisions of that Act;
e) the tenant and the landlord must jointly, before the tenant moves into the dwelling, inspect the dwelling to ascertain the existence or not of any defects or damage therein with a view to determining the landlord’s responsibility for rectifying any defects or damage or with a view to registering such defects or damage, as provided for in subsection (7);
f) at the expiration of the lease the landlord and tenant must arrange a joint inspection of the dwelling at a mutually convenient time to take place within a period of three days prior to such expiration with a view to ascertaining if there was any damage caused to the dwelling during the tenant’s occupation thereof;
g) on the expiration of the lease, the landlord may apply such deposit and interest towards the payment of all amounts for which the tenant is liable under the said lease, including the reasonable cost of repairing damage to the dwelling during the lease period and the cost of replacing lost keys and the balance of the deposit and interest, if any, must then be refunded to the tenant by the landlord not later than 14 days of restoration of the dwelling to the landlord;
h) the relevant receipts which indicate the costs which the landlord incurred, as contemplated in paragraph (g), must be available to the tenant for inspection as proof of such costs incurred by the landlord;
i) should no amounts be due and owing to the landlord in terms of the lease, the deposit, together with the accrued interest in respect thereof, must be refunded by the landlord to the tenant, without any deduction or set-off, within seven days of expiration of the lease;
j) failure by the landlord to inspect the dwelling in the presence of the tenant as contemplated in paragraphs (e) or (f) is deemed to be an acknowledgement by the landlord that the dwelling is in a good and proper state of repair, and the landlord will have no further claim against the tenant who must then be refunded, in terms of this subsection, the full deposit plus interest by the landlord;
k) should the tenant fail to respond to the landlord’s request for an inspection as contemplated in paragraph (f), the landlord must, on expiration of the lease, inspect the dwelling within seven days from such expiration in order to assess any damages or loss which occurred during the tenancy;
l) the landlord may in the circumstances contemplated in paragraph (k), without detracting from any other right or remedy of the landlord, deduct from the tenant’s deposit and interest the reasonable cost of repairing damage to the dwelling and the cost of replacing lost keys;
m) the balance of the deposit and interest, if any, after deduction of the amounts contemplated in paragraph (1), must be refunded to the tenant by the landlord not later than 21 days after expiration of the lease;
n) the relevant receipts which indicate the costs which the landlord incurred, as contemplated in paragraph (1), must be available to the tenant for inspection as proof of such costs incurred by the landlord;
o) should the tenant vacate the dwelling before expiration of the lease, without notice to the landlord, the lease is deemed to have expired on the date that the landlord established that the tenant had vacated the dwelling but in such event the landlord retains all his or her rights arising from the tenant’s breach of the lease; and
p) any costs in relation to contract of lease shall only be payable by the tenant upon proof of factual expenditure by the landlord.
This is the section you're looking for. Looks you could even get your entire R6k back
Sign up with Google
