A family who bought a R10m mansion in upmarket Hout Bay is struggling to evict a tenant who has been residing on the property before the previous owner sold it, resulting in a court battle to force him out.

A Cape Argus report says Emilia Vollmer and her 11 family members said they were at their wits’ end after spending R200 000 in legal fees trying to remove Adrian Mitchell who had been staying on the property with the previous owners.

According to court papers, Mitchell said he had ongoing legal disputes with his previous landlord regarding the property.

He was forced out of the property on Sunday by the family.

‘We have maintained that it was not our intention to evict anyone. We offered him a cottage which is just 15m away from our home and he can stay in the property until we can legally evict him. We were asked to leave our property because moving him from the house to the cottage is considered an illegal eviction, although we argued in court today (yesterday) that the cottage is part of the property,’ said Vollmer.

An interim court interdict was granted by the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Monday.

The magistrate interdicted the Vollmer family from interfering with Mitchell while he occupied the property until eviction proceedings take place next year.

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