Tenants have emerged victorious in two recent cases before the Rental Tribunal which found that landlords' right to favourable returns on their investments was outweighed by the rights of their tenants to affordable housing. GroundUp reports on two Western Cape tenants who faced eviction by the same landlord.

Zubeida Hendricks (81), who has lived on Goldsmith Street in Salt River for 51 years, was given a month's notice to vacate the premises because the landlord intended to maintain the property. Hendricks, represented by Ndifuna Ukwazi Law Centre, took her landlord to the the Western Cape Rental Housing Tribunal where the landlord admitted that his real intention was to sell the property.

The tribunal found that the landlord's notice was an unfair practice. It did not refer to any breach of the lease agreement by Hendricks. Moreover, it did not reveal the real motivation which was to sell the property. Senior citizens Omar and Faieza Salie, who had been living in Goldsmith Street for 36 years, said their rent in November 2015, increased by 25% and in January 2018 by a further 36%, after the regular 10% increase just three months earlier.

They refused to pay this further increase, so their landlord, the same landlord who tried to evict Hendricks, served a notice on them to vacate the property. The Salies took their case to the tribunal, also represented by the Ndifuna Ukwazi Law Centre. It found that the rent increases imposed on the Salies were exorbitant. It took into consideration the state of disrepair and the lack of maintenance of the property. The tribunal ruled the landlord could not reasonably rely on significant returns on his investment.

Full GroundUp report

First ruling

Second ruling