Eviction order for 'squatting' homeowner after sale
The Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) has ordered a woman, who had sold her Northcliff home but refused to move out and had also brought in another family to squat on the property, to vacate the premises.
The court ordered that she face eviction by the sheriff, assisted if necessary by police officials or private security guards, if she doesn't move by 31 March 2025.
Homeowners Kooshen and Vanessa Naidoo ‘have been put through an ordeal they did nothing to incite’, Judge Stuart Wilson said, according to a TimesLIVE report.
Nkombi had owned the property with Nomalanga Nkombi but they fell behind on their mortgage payments to Standard Bank. The bank had taken judgment on the bond in 2015, but stayed execution for long enough to allow the Nkombis to sell the property.
The advantage of doing so was that the purchase price provided for in terms of the sale agreement, R1.2m, was much more than Standard Bank or the Nkombis could reasonably expect to obtain at a forced sale held in execution of the judgment. The property was sold to the Naidoos in July 2021 and they became the registered owners in November that year.
However, while the one co-owner moved out, the other refused.
‘The source of her (Kholeka's) dissatisfaction appears to have been that the purchase price was insufficient to extinguish her indebtedness under the loan agreement, and left her without the surplus she thought necessary to relocate from the property,’ Wilson said.
Standard Bank offered to pay up to R100 000 to assist Nkombi to relocate and the Naidoos offered to pay R48 000.
She refused to move and the new owners began legal proceedings for her eviction in February 2022. The consequent delays left the Naidoos in an unsustainable situation, Wilson said.
They were paying rent to live at a townhouse in Roodepoort while at the same time servicing the bond they had taken out to purchase the Northcliff property. The Naidoos fell behind with both their lease and bond payments.
In April 2023, the Naidoos quit the Roodepoort property and moved into the Northcliff house with Nkombi, who still refused to vacate.
‘The situation at present is that the Naidoos occupy the living rooms in the main house on the property with their infant son. The Naidoos’ other son, a 10-year-old, was sent to live with a relative. Ms Nkombi lives in one of the bedrooms. On 13 April 2023, two further individuals: Warren and Chantal Ellie, moved onto the property with their newborn baby. They were invited to do so by Nkombi.'
In their house purchase agreement, the judge said the Naidoos had ‘contracted with her on terms which 'strike me as perfectly fair'.
The judge added: 'They did not seek a quick bargain against an unsuspecting homeowner at a forced sale. There was no excuse in law or in equity for Ms Nkombi to have remained behind. The fact that she has remained entrenched at the property for years since the sale agreement was executed compounds the injury. There is no serious dispute that Nkombi is an unlawful occupier of the property under the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act, the judge said.
The Ellies are subject to the same eviction order, the TimesLIVE report says.
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.