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Privacy and Renting Accommodation

Before you read any further, download a copy of the Rental Housing Act 50 of 1999 which outlines your rights in terms of the law.

One of the most important parts of the Rental Housing Act states:

4. (2) A tenant has the right, during the lease period, to privacy, and the landlord may only exercise his or her right of inspection in a reasonable manner after reasonable notice to the tenant.

Our landlord happened to live on the property, and was unemployed, and has no social or negotiation skills whatsoever. She therefore took it upon herself to interfere in our life in numerous ways, including snooping around our garden, rearranging things, telling us what kind of floor polish to use, and refusing to allow us to water the garden.

If you have to rent a place, avoid one where:
(a) The landlord lives on the premises; or
(b) The caretaker is unpopular with the tenants; or
(c) There are no house rules.

The place we have moved to has a wonderful owner, who takes pride in her building, and is fussy about its appearance, and is not shy to spend money on painting or maintenance. The security is good, the tenants are happy and the view is magnificent. In the old place, there was little or no maintenance, inspections were not done properly, and the gates were left wide open by the owner on a regular basis. There were no house rules: rules were made up as required, and applied differently to different tenants.

In my case the property management company is registered as an Estate Agent. "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;" You can contact the "Estate Agency Affairs Board" if you have a complaint.

Rental Housing Tribunals: The government is setting up Rental Housing Tribunals in each province to deal with all types of illegal or unfair practice relating to the landlord/tenant relationship. The Tribunals are courts, with powers similar to those of magistrate's courts.
Gauteng Rental Housing Tribunal
Tel: (011) 355 4209
Western Cape Rental Housing Tribunal
Tel: (021) 483 2111
Joburg Residents Warned Against Unscrupulous Landlords is a news article amout the Gauteng Rental Housing Tribunal

Return to the Privacy South Africa main page.

The Landlady from Hell

My story gets long and complicated. I will spare you the details, but I have left the grammar and spelling in the letters (marked *) as supplied. But here are some lessons learnt.

We received a letter from Yellow Button, the "professional property management" agents, that stated:

"It has been brought to the attention of this office, that you are unfortunately not adhering to some of the rules of the complex. It is with utmost respect that we alert you to the following facts, as you are new tenants.

"The owner of the complex resides at Concerto herself and as such maintains all the gardens both private and common property and therefore she must have access yo your garden at all times, please give her a key to the new padlock that you have put on your garden gate."*

Rules of the Complex: We were not provided with the House Rules as required by the Rental Housing Act, section 5.(8) "A copy of any House Rules applicable to a dwelling must be attached as an annexure to the lease." We requested a copy of the house rules and were told that in fact there weren't any. So we were in the bizarre position of having to comply with "rules of the complex" that were not written down, but were only in the mind of the landlady, and which changed according to her whim.

Access to private property: The act states quite clearly" "4.(2) A tenant has the right, during the lease period, to privacy, and the landlord may only exercise his or her right of inspection in a reasonable manner after reasonable notice to the tenant." The lease stated that reasonable notice would be 24 hours written notice. So technically we were entitled to a written notice 24 hours before the landlady entered the garden. We tried to discuss the matter with her, but she refused to discuss it. Had she been reasonable about entering the garden, we wouldn't have minded, but she wasn't. In fact she wasn't reasonable about just about anything.

Padlock: we changed the garden padlock to enforce our privacy. But it din't preclude the landlord from access to the garden because it was still possible to enter the flat through the front door, walk through the lounge and out of the lounge door into the garden. For the purposes of inspection this was fine. We pointed this out to the "professional property management" agents, who did nothing. Of course.

On another occasion we received a letter from Yellow Button that stated:

"It is apparent that you're outside veranda is in need of cleaning"*

"We have received complaints concerning the fact that your domestic worker has polished the parcay flooring, which according to the LESSOR does not need polishing as the parcay flooring has been sanded and sealed. You are kindly requested to advise your domestic worker accordingly."*

We noticed that almost every time she walked past our front door she would look in to see what was going on. Eventually we covered the frosted glass so one couldn't see it, just to keep her prying eyes out.

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