eviction notice

kronoSX

kronoSX

Honorary Master
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Capetown home to gang stars
The story goes as follows,i live in a complex and something happened to electrical pole during a heavy storm which left the complex without electricity for 3 days,City of cape town electrical department came out and fixed the error.

When i got home my Pre paid electric box showed fault error reading"call electricity"
SO i did and it took 3 weeks for them to reply with a reference,During that 3 weeks i let the landlord/agent know

I have been without electricity for 2 months already,the landlord made no effort to fix the problem,They said i must phone,this is not my problem and i refused to pay the rent,I have not paid the rent since the electricity problem.

I said to the agent i will not pay untill they fix this as i have been staying by my girlfriends all this time.Now they sent me a letter that i have not paid and i must be out by the end of the month.My deposit is still with them and i signed a six month lease agreement.

Will you pay your rent if this happened.What can i do now and what is my rights.Need help on this as my electricity is still off and eskom never came out even though i have the ref#:wtf:
 
Checking your rent agreement would be a good place to start?
 
Lawyer up. They should at least give you back the deposit and probably a month's rent. You are not responsible for upkeep of others' property.
 
Bryn26 said:
Checking your rent agreement would be a good place to start?
Click to expand...

Yep, look at your rental agreement.. normally there a clause in there stating that you still must pay etc even in situation like this..?

Edit: take them to the rental tribunal
 
How much was the deposit? More or less than 2 month's rent?

I understand why you decided not to pay rent, but I don't think - legally speaking - that you can withhold rent if the property is not being maintained.
 
What a lousy position to be in. My sympathies.

You can't withhold all the rent because of the electrical problem. You still had a roof, walls, doors, windows, kitchen, bathroom, sewerage, etc to be paid for.

Also, how do you know the repair people didn't come round repeatedly and found no-one home?
 
GazWrack said:
How much was the deposit? More or less than 2 month's rent?

I understand why you decided not to pay rent, but I don't think - legally speaking - that you can withhold rent if the property is not being maintained.
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The right way to handle maintenance issues is for the tenant to inform the landlord of the defect. If the problem is not repaired the tenant can claim breach of contract and demand repair within the required number of days specified in the lease agreement. If the landlord still does not comply the tenant can cancel the agreement and vacate the property without a damages claim against them.

By common law the landlord's responsibility is to make sure that the property is in a condition reasonably fit for living
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If electricity forms part of that, then the landlord is in breach on the contract, however by not paying it's secondary breach and considering you went via an agent you will be blacklisted as well ;)

That said the op did inform that maintenance is required, and landlord failed to act on the notification, however should the OP have set an ultimatum in writing that the issue needs to be fixed in 14 days, or else rent will be withheld or rent will still be paid however the landlord will have to pay the repair costs should you get some one in to do the repair work.

Simply with holding rent is a bad idea, although you are legally entitled to do so, in certain conditions it is generally just a bad idea.
 
Yes anyone will advise you pay and then fight - simply refusing to pay puts you in a pickle. Sounds like you don't mind losing your deposit though it may not end there, they may come after you for more.
 
Arthur said:
What a lousy position to be in. My sympathies.

You can't withhold all the rent because of the electrical problem. You still had a roof, walls, doors, windows, kitchen, bathroom, sewerage, etc to be paid for.

Also, how do you know the repair people didn't come round repeatedly and found no-one home?
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I left a key there and i was staying at my GF place all this time,I spoke to the other tenants and they all had problems like this with the landlord taking weeks or months to fix a problems,i am seeing a pattern here
 
Take it to the rental tribunal if you dont have this resolved and simply dont pay you will be blacklisted and lose your deposit or worse.
 
1) Get a lawyer
2) Draw a list of grievances
3) Get the other tenants to sign
4) Mail copies to credit bureau and other parties should the landlord refuse to comply
 
jansdejager said:
1) Get a lawyer
2) Draw a list of grievances
3) Get the other tenants to sign
4) Mail copies to credit bureau and other parties should the landlord refuse to comply
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Good advice.

If it were me: if not repaired within a day or two, give them 24 hours to get it fixed or you get your own repairer and deduct it from the rent. It's intolerable that such an important thing can drag on so long.

Good luck.
 
Mark8,

I go to great length to go through any contracts very deeply, upfront, before signing, no matter what contract it is, and no matter how big and small.

I then amend the clauses I am not prepared to abide with. Many times that will cause the lease or deal to fall flat, as renting companies would refuse to allow an amending of the contract, but this is not cast in stone, it all depends if they want a tenant desperately, or not. The more tenants there are, the less they will be able to negotiate, the less tenants there are, the more you can negotiate.

Bottom line, it does not help to sign what is put in front of you, and then when there are problems, try to hit back by not paying rent. If you don't dispute a contract, that contract is set up to protect them in the deepest detail, and if you signed, you indicated you accepted the terms and conditions.

I advise that you do not withold rent, rather see out the 6 months, it can't be long to go, and get out of there as fast as you can.

But let it be a learning experience. If you don't look after yourself with contracts, then businesses are going to anihilate you. Even if you go pay all the rent now, you probably will already be blacklisted and have a black mark against you if you try to rent future properties. You might think this is not a big thing, but it can be a nightmare the day you want to apply for a bond or buy a car.
 
Depending on what your contract says your landlord may be in breach of contract. There's no such thing as secondary breach of contract from the injured party. Still it's a bad idea to just withhold rent. Correct procedure is to state in writing that an issue should be fixed in x amount of time and that if it isn't you will claim back compensation or cancel the agreement and evict the property. In terms of the law you also have basic rights which take priority over any contract. Might be wrong but I think water & electricity would qualify as a basic necessity.

If your landlord is in breach of contract you no longer have to abide by the conditions set out in the contract but your landlord does. Problem is that you didn't give notice in writing so they could claim you were still making use of the property. Best bet is to first speak to them. It seems fair that the one month's deposit is compensation for the time you were there without paying. If they want to take it further you can report it to ombudsman and also the credit ombudsman to get your name cleared.

See it as a learning experience to do things the correct way next time.
 
Arthur said:
Good advice.

If it were me: if not repaired within a day or two, give them 24 hours to get it fixed or you get your own repairer and deduct it from the rent. It's intolerable that such an important thing can drag on so long.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

this, usually in the lease if they do not fix the problem within a certain period you can subtract it from rent and get your own person to fix
 
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