Wonky rental contract?

[Frikkie5000]

My brother has run into a weird situation at the complex where he is renting a house. None of the previous tenants he spoke to got their deposits back.

The rental agreement from the developer specifies that the tenant is responsible for painting the entire inside of the house and steam cleaning all the carpets upon vacating the property. To me this seems rather dodgy, as paint is usually classified under "normal wear and tear" in line the the Rental Housing Act. So unless you damaged the walls and they need repainting, I can't see how the landlord can make the tenant responsible for painting the entire inside of the house regardless if there is any damage to the walls or the length of occupancy.

Now here comes the extra dodgy part. One of the tenants spoke to the caretaker and the caretaker told him the specific paint that the developer uses is R500 for 5 litres, but is only available from a supplier in Bronkhosrtspruit (the complex is in Pretoria). My brother knows of 3 other tenants who recently moved out and the developer basically withheld their deposits to paint the inside of the house because it was stipulated in the rental agreement. Given that the property is barely 80 square meters, something feels fishy to me. I can't imagine that it costs almost R7000 (value of the deposits) to paint the units.

I have a strong suspicion the developer is using the "the tenant has to paint the house" part of the contract as a mechanism to withhold people's deposits in order to fix normal wear and tear issues that should actually be the responsibility of the developer. Or worse, withhold the deposits, paint the unit on the cheap and then pocketing the rest. Since this is relatively low-cost, 1 year contract units, I don't think tenants want to go through the trouble of taking the developer on.

Am I the only one that finds this fishy? I don't think this is standard practice.

 

[f2wohf]

It's definitely abusing the law.

Never heard of a tenant having to repaint for normal wear and tear.

If I was your brother - being aware of this - I would simply not pay the last month of rental and they can come sue me, we'd have fun.

 

[rietrot]

Jeez don't people read the stuff they sign. If you agreed to it paint the house.

 

[Venomous]

Housing tribunal...
They deal with rental matters

 

[f2wohf]

Jeez don't people read the stuff they sign. If you agreed to it paint the house.

Even if you signed it with your blood, it still contravenes the Rental Housing Act and is therefore an invalid provision of the lease agreement and deemed not enforceable.

(5) The landlord’s rights against the tenant include his or her right to—
(a)prompt and regular-payment of a rental or any charges that may be payable in terms of a lease;
(b)recover unpaid rental or any other amount that is due and payable after
obtaining a ruling by the Tribunal or an order of a court of law:
(c)terminate the lease in respect of rental housing property on grounds that do not
constitute an unfair practice and are specified in the lease;
(d) on termination of a lease to—
(i) receive the rental housing property in a good state of repair, save for fair
wear and tear; and
(ii) repossess rental housing property having first obtained an order of court:
and
(e) claim compensation for damage to the rental housing property or any other
improvements on the land on which the dwelling is situated, if any. caused by
the tenant. a member of the tenants household or a visitor of the tenant.

https://www.westerncape.gov.za/Text/2005/10/a50-99.pdf

My lease has a few illegal clauses too but it's a lease issued by a company and changing it was too much complications, hence I signed it and will go to court should they want these clauses to be applied.

 

[krycor]

I just had a landlord claim that notifying rental agent who notified them that lease is not being extended is not valid as they need to be notified directly. Fun times.. because for all maters including a previous renewal (setting precedent) via the agent was fine (acting as a legal representative).

All I can say is.. if people want to have fraud case & charge against them, they really don’t understand the impact on employability. This snowflake works as a legal rep for a company, guess they will be claiming UIF by year end because I’m taking this all the way and will not accept plea bargain when fraud charge handed down.