A Stellenbosch tenant’s fight to stay in a luxury golf estate home has ended in partial defeat after the SCA ruled the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) does not protect tenants who rent from private homeowners.

In a landmark judgment, the SCA found Johann Els, who leased the property from Daniel and Melanie Venter while they lived in Australia, was not covered by the Act, reports News24.

Acting Judge Ashton Schippers confirmed the CPA did not apply to one-off, private lease agreements, ruling that homeowners who temporarily rent out their properties were not acting in the ordinary course of business.

The ruling stems from a protracted dispute between Els, the chief economist at Old Mutual and the Australian-based homeowners, over a lease of a luxury property in the De Zalze Winelands Golf Estate.

The Venters sold the house in December 2023 and gave Els notice. But Els refused to vacate the property.

Els cited the legal principle, ‘huur gaat voor koop’, which means that a lease survives the sale of a property.

He later claimed the agreement was a fixed-term contract protected by the CPA, which he argued, prohibited early termination, according to News24.

When attempts to resolve the dispute failed, the Venters approached the Western Cape High Court (Cape Town) in February 2024.

In her ruling, High Court Judge Hayley Slingers found the case was urgent and that the CPA did not apply to the lease.

Els, however, turned to the SCA, arguing the CPA should apply. Schippers dismissed his argument, finding the Venters were not ‘suppliers” under the Act and that Els was not a ‘consumer’ as defined by it.

However, the SCA partly upheld the appeal, striking out the portion of the High Court’s order that required Els to vacate the property by a specific date.

The appellate court held that this effectively amounted to an eviction order.

The rest of the High Court’s decision – including the finding that the CPA did not apply – was upheld, with costs awarded against Els on a punitive scale.

Full News24 report

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