Question posted in the Property Law category relating to Gauteng
I recently cancelled a lease for an apartment that i have lived in for 8 months. On the day we moved in the inspection of the apartment was not detailed, and they never provided us with those images. On the day that we moved out the inspection of the apartment was more detailed and images of the apartment were taken. The landlord now refuses to give us our deposit back and is holding us liable for damages that we are not liable for, below is some of the concers we have.
1. We did not put any curtains in our rooms and also in the lounge, due to the fact that we were on the top floor and no one could see into our unit, therefore we do not take any responsibility for any missing curtains hooks.
2. The bathtub did not have any scratches, this is something that was communicated with the apartment inspector on the day of the inspection. Furthermore, the bath tub had stains of which when we moved in it was not completely white.
3. The mould on the ceiling was there before we moved in. Maybe it was not at the state that it was in when moving out, however such things are fixed by adding vents if the bathroom doesn't have any windows, which once again is not something we have control over as tenants and also do not take responsibility for.
4. Most importantly, our apartment was not inspected by the same person coming in and leaving. This caused me to have to explain how certain things were that way when we moved in, for an example; the damages on the doors as well.
Had we known that the apartment was to be inspected at the degree that it was inspected in when we moved out, we would've flagged a lot more inconsistencies in the beginning. Lastly, there were problems when we moved in of which Agent had written down from the first day that were never resolved during our stay. We only occupied the unit for less than 8 months and in these months, we did not have any furniture in the apartment such as a couch, television etc; we only had beds and thus, a lot of your concerns are beyond our understanding.
Kindly advise on how further action can be taken.