Landlords & Deposits

For some reason the landlord does not want 2 give my sister the deposit. I just said play dirty,take the lawnmower and we will keep it until they pay. Sister also has a lawyer as a friend :p
 
Korn1 said:
For some reason the landlord does not want 2 give my sister the deposit. I just said play dirty,take the lawnmower and we will keep it until they pay. Sister also has a lawyer as a friend :p
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Then you must tell him you have it as a lien, surely?
 
When you rent via an agent the owner never gets the deposit. Its held by the agent in an interest bearing account and then the deposit and interest is paid back to the tenant at end of the lease (minus damages).

In theory you could rent the place for 5-10 years and that is a lot of interest ! Also if the rent goes up you should actually increase the deposit by the same amount, so if its R500 or whatever then you need to pay that over and above to rent and it gets added to the amount in the investment account.
 
I raised this issue with my rental agent this morning. She sent me the lease agreement for my renewal and I told her that she can just state that (as the deposit for the new lease), I would be carrying over the deposit from the old lease including any interest accrued. She then replied to say that interest is not for the tenant.

I'm not really keen on arguing, as they seem to be the type that would just refuse my renewal instead of arguing the merits with me.
 
Lounger said:
Then you must tell him you have it as a lien, surely?
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A lien is when an owner (landlord) of an immovable asset has a (limited real) right over the movable assets of the tenant. So if the tenant doesn't pay, the landlord can get a court order and take possession of the tenant's assets and sell them to gather the rent.

Taking a landlord's lawnmower is just plain theft.
 
JIMMYtheSKULL said:
My last landlord screwewd me out of 4.5k deposit, the only damages to the flat was chipwood doors on a closet that came off. I paid them 200k rent in the 6 years i stayed there..... Thats plain ****ing greedy if you ask me.
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You can ask your landlord for a quote and proof of payment for the amount of damages incurred. If he refuse, take him to the Rental Housing Tribunal.
 
Korn1 said:
For some reason the landlord does not want 2 give my sister the deposit. I just said play dirty,take the lawnmower and we will keep it until they pay. Sister also has a lawyer as a friend :p
Click to expand...

A deposit plus interest (minus expenses due to damage) needs to be repaid within seven days of the end of the lease agreement. Don't make matters worse by acting like a thief, just report the landlord to the tribunal and let the law sort him out.

Remember the clichéd saying: the only thing necessary for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.

If a landlord is playing you and you do nothing, then he will just continue doing so to other people less knowledgeable than you. Let justice win ;)
 
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