Question posted in the Landlord Tenant Law category relating to KwaZulu-Natal
If I have signed a lease where a landlord included a passage saying that he is not part of the CPA and therefor should we choose to terminate the lease agreement early we will be liable to pay for the remaining months of the lease agreement as well as loose our deposit.Can a landlord legally do this and just declare that their service are not covered by the CPA? If I have given him 20 business days notice is that not reasonable as we will be moving out of town and not even to another property in the same city.
I can provide the lease agreement if needed as the agent has advise that her commission that she received would also need to be paid by us
Message from the Lawyer
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No, what your landlord has attempted to do is completely invalid. One cannot simply popped out of legislation like the consumer protection Act.
The provisions of the consumer protection Act will apply to your contract, if applicable, and no amount of lease agreement drafting will be able to change that.
This means that you are 100% correct that be CPA will still apply, not withstanding the landlords attempts to exclude its operation, and if you elected to give 20 business days notice of cancellation of the lease agreement, you would be well within your rights to do so.
Answer Accepted
Message from the Lawyer
In relation to the commission for the rental agent, that really does depend on what is negotiated and discussed and agreed between the parties.
If there is no agreement between you and the landlord as to who is liable for payment of the commission, then the default position is that the landlord is liable.
If however the rental agreement says that you are liable to pay the commission, then this is what has been agreed upon and is what will be enforced...