Land lord issues

FapCop

FapCop

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I'm ready to rip someone's head off.
Background story: previous tenant was a dead-beat. Paid his accounts late. Left utility bills in arrears. He got booted, I moved in.

The water and electricity account's arrears was never settled and the municipality has cut my electricity off for the second time now, even though I've been paying in an orderly fashion. Last time this happened, the land lord only paid enough to get it reconnected, but still left an outstanding amount. This was two or three months ago. Now its off again.

I'm gatvol and I want to move. Now.

Legally, what are my options?
 
Arksun said:
I'm ready to rip someone's head off.
Background story: previous tenant was a dead-beat. Paid his accounts late. Left utility bills in arrears. He got booted, I moved in.

The water and electricity account's arrears was never settled and the municipality has cut my electricity off for the second time now, even though I've been paying in an orderly fashion. Last time this happened, the land lord only paid enough to get it reconnected, but still left an outstanding amount. This was two or three months ago. Now its off again.

I'm gatvol and I want to move. Now.

Legally, what are my options?
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That's a breach of contract, you can move if you want to. But give him another chance, tell him if it cuts off again, you will move out.
 
crackersa said:
That's a breach of contract, you can move if you want to. But give him another chance, tell him if it cuts off again, you will move out.
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You generally need to notify him of the breach in writing and give 7 days to remedy the breach before you can notify of intent to cancel the agreement.
 
crackersa said:
Repeated cut offs can be seen as a breach
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Agree, not disputing there is a breach, but the contract law process involves the aggrieved party notifying the the other of the breach and providing this option to remedy, until this is done one can not summarily cancel the agreement.

The landlord will simply argue you didnt do anything the first time so why now.
 
Last edited:
etwylite said:
Agree but the contract law process involves the aggrieved party notifying the the other of the breach and providing this option to remedy, until this is done one can not summarily cancel the agreement.

The landlord will simply argue you didnt do anything the first time so why now.
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Well notify him now, if it happens again, second notification, third time....move out
 
How did he manage to get the municipality to re-connect with amounts still outstanding? I had a dead beat tenant in PMB and when he was cut off they forced me to put up a R3000 deposit and settle before they'd reconnect.
 
Arksun said:
I'm ready to rip someone's head off.
Background story: previous tenant was a dead-beat. Paid his accounts late. Left utility bills in arrears. He got booted, I moved in.

The water and electricity account's arrears was never settled and the municipality has cut my electricity off for the second time now, even though I've been paying in an orderly fashion. Last time this happened, the land lord only paid enough to get it reconnected, but still left an outstanding amount. This was two or three months ago. Now its off again.

I'm gatvol and I want to move. Now.

Legally, what are my options?
Click to expand...

As a matter of interest, how do you know what was paid by the landlord? And a tenant should not normally be the one to pay the utility bills?

Moving on, what are the terms of your lease agreement? It's not like you will be able to sue him for damages with the likely amounts in question. So, if you want to move on; you should do it in terms of your lease agreement.
 
Update:

They can't pay to settle the amount. What has been established is that the lights will remain off for the rest of the week. No more hot showers, no internet and no Xbox this weekend.

Lease states two months notice, but they agreed on me moving out, but then I'm not getting my deposit back.

Aggro is intense.
 
They have no right to withhold your deposit unless there is damage. Landlord is in breach, notice does not apply
 
Arksun said:
Update:

They can't pay to settle the amount. What has been established is that the lights will remain off for the rest of the week. No more hot showers, no internet and no Xbox this weekend.

Lease states two months notice, but they agreed on me moving out, but then I'm not getting my deposit back.

Aggro is intense.
Click to expand...

They have absolutely no right to withhold your deposit for that... they have breached contract. Inform them that you will be moving out with immediate effect, you will expect your full deposit back and you will charge them for the cost of the move. Should they not pay, take them to Small Claims Court.
 
Why are landlords generally such horrible human beings? Are they born this way?
 
Sounds a lot like my previous landlord. I always paid my rent on time and the douche refused to pay his property rates. Everytime the services got cut he would pay in something like 20% of the outstanding balance. Every 4 months I would have to go two days without services. He probably tells the next tenant that I didn't pay my lights and water hence the outstanding balance.
 
What is stopping you to pay the outstanding amount for services and deduct from month end rent payment?
 
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