Legal Articles and Guides

A landlord battling a problem tenant may be tempted to bypass the delays and cost of legal action with some robust “self-help” action, like cutting electricity or water, or blocking access to the premises with a change of locks or access cards. The problem is that our law has always frowned on the concept of “taking the law into your own hands”. A landlord doing so acts unlawfully, allowing the tenant a quick and powerful remedy in the form of a “spoliation order”. We discuss what that entails, what the tenant must prove, and (by referring to a recent High Court decision) whether the landlord can successfully argue that a right to an electricity supply is just a “personal right” and thus not covered by the spoliation remedy.

The Schubart Park residents who were moved to Parkview Units, among other complexes, a decade ago, may continue living there for now.

The landlord of Parkview Units ‒ one of three housing complexes which have been accommodating former Schubart Park residents ‒ wants to evict the more than 300 people.

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 group of mostly women say they were tricked into signing leases by the Ingonyama Trust on their ancestral land and are now seeking a KZN High Court (Pietermaritzburg) order to declare the agreements invalid.

How courts are moving in tandem with the easing of lockdown restrictions in their rulings on evictions is noted by attorney Simon Dippenaar in a Fin24 report. He says in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, evictions were not allowed, but points out a recent case shows fair consideration for all parties.

Judgment in Cape Town’s Bromwell Street matter, where residents have taken the City of Cape Town to court over housing, was reserved yesterday.

A farm owner who attempted to evict pensioner Katie Moyeni (73), despite the fact she had stayed and worked at the farm since 1997, has failed in the SCA.

Landlords and tenants alike should understand the regulations applicable to tenant evictions during the National State of Disaster. Many tenants are of course finding it hard to meet their monthly rental commitments, whilst landlords still have to fund their ongoing expenses and will be keen to be rid of problem tenants preventing them from doing so.

Leases often give tenants an option to extend or renew at the end of the current term, and tenants who lose sight of the value and importance of such an option are flirting with disaster.

Cape Town Mayor Dan Plato says the city will appeal a judgment yesterday removing the City of Cape Town's right to protect property from land invasion.

The COVID-19 crisis has changed everything. Our personal lives have been upended and our businesses hit hard. And with many businesses operating out of leased premises, a great many landlords and tenants are asking themselves what happens if the crisis leaves a tenant unable to pay the agreed rental.

Judgment in the matter between Hangberg residents and the City of Cape Town over the eviction and demolition of a family home in the area is expected today, says a Cape Argus report.

The Legal Resource Centre (LRC) has given the City of Cape Town until today (6 July) to halt all evictions in the metro or it will approach the courts for relief. The LRC has been instructed by the Human Rights Commission, the Housing Assembly and Bulelani Qolani – the man who was removed from his shack naked – to challenge the city's eviction policy, as well as its alleged human rights violations, notes a News24 report.

A full bench of the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) has declared a section of the SA Police Services Act used to allow police raids against residents of so-called ‘hijacked’ buildings constitutionally invalid.