I have been living in a house that has been available for sale but with constant security maintenance problems. There are electrical flaws in the house which mean that the front gate can open and stop working without any notice. This leave is either with a gate wide open, a gate unable to close and we are trapped in the house or we are close to trapped out the house. I resorted to chaining the gate shut. The landlord got increasinky motivated  to sell and tried to demand unlimited access and the keys to the property when we weren't in the country for viewings (some even 9am on a Sunday). As we tried to protect our rights to enjoyment of the property and offer alternates the landlord decided to rather negotiate an early exit so he can have unlimited access at all hours. He agreed to a date and we requested a month earlier as we simply could not live with the harassment, privacy invasion and most importantly security issue (alarm was unattended for 3 months).we gave notice and he went dead quiet and the agent said he intended to litigate. We had confirmation form agent last night house is sold and just minutes later received a lawyers letter where the landlord is trying to sue us for breach of contract, force our eviction by month end and charge two months penalty rental (despite the fact that he himself even proposed and agreed an earlier date). I have submitted my complaint to the rental control board but realise this may take time. I am a single mother with 3 kids one writing her matric exams and I simply can't keep on disrupting my children's live like this. It's a typical situation of a foreign landlord trying to litigate and abuse the system. Must also be noted the letting agent seems to also be the selling agent and they refused to communicate with us on our attempts to negotiate to not place their sales commissions at risk. Can you please advise?

It’s clear that the landlord wants to terminate lease quickly so his sale isn’t a sale with a lease. How can they then charge me penalties?

Hi there and thank you for your question,

I am a practicing attorney based in South Africa and I will assist you with your question. Please feel free to ask as many follow up questions in order to clarify your question. If you have a new question, you must please open a new thread.

Please keep in mind that our discussions is for general information purposes only. Our engagement on this website does not create an attorney-client relationship.

It honestly does sound like the landlord is trying to abuse the entire system to me. I think that the real issue MIGHT be that the landlord has sold the property and he has promised to allow the purchaser to move in on a certain date. e.g. 1 August. He therefore has a major issue because you are still living there... so he wants to threaten you with as much as he can so you will just move out soonest. It's not right! 

It sounds like the 2 month penalty is a penalty which he would be entitled to claim in terms of section 14 of the Consumer Protection Act in the event that YOU terminate the lease agreement early. The penalty seeks to give a landlord some cover (because of the early cancellation) until such time as he can find a replacement tenant. 

But if you didn't cancel the lease in terms of section 14 of the CPA, and if the landlord does not actually suffer any loses (because the purchaser is moving in!) then there can be no speak of a penalty! 

I think that you should speak to the attorney and find out just what is going on. Say that you want to have a discussion around the best way to deal with all of this. You essentially want to understand what the issue is, because if the landlord is required to give vacant occupation of the property to the purchaser on a certain date, then maybe you guys can reach an agreement. 

The idea of the discussion is not necessarily to reach an agreement, but rather to understand what the actual issue is. It is to understand the landlord's "want" so you can see if you can give him that while still taking into account your "want". 

Do you accept that the lease agreement has been cancelled early? What was the date which was agreed on?

What is clear is that -

1) If there was an agreement to cancel the lease early, then there can be no argument about a 2 month penalty charge! That has gone out the window. The only claim from the landlord could be if you didn't vacate of the agreed upon date, then the landlord could charge you rental for the period that you continue living in the property. 

2) Any eviction application would take 6 - 9 months to resolve in court, so there is ABSOLUTELY no way that any eviction could happen by the end of July or August. No Ways.