Asked by the Customer on 22-04-2014 20:47:10
Question posted in the Landlord Tenant Law category relating to Free State

We've recently moved into a house (Brandfort) that was rented out in behalf of the owner. Owner currently lives in Bloemfontein. No contract was signed yet, after several requests on this. Two payments has already been done, March & April. When asked about the electricity, the third person assured me that it is included in the amount. It did not make sense to me and after a visit to the local municipality, they immediately stops the current account and refused to help me with a new account unless the owner paid the outstanding amount of R50 000. I've search for the owner for quite some time. Eventually I've found her and after spoken to her about the whole renting and electricity situation, she claimed to unaware of this. She promised me a contract. A few weeks later the electricity was being disconnected and we are with electricity for almost 3 weeks. I went to municipalilty and was told that they will only work through the owner. I've phoned the owner and after I've explained to her our situation, her only response was 'sorry'. I've told her that we need electricity but it was obvious that she did not have any money to pay the municipality. I told her that I've have no other choice but to look for another place to rent. Since that day I did not hear anything from her. I've made several attempts to get hold of her, without any success. We are unable to find another place yet, and had to made some expenses to equip us with some kind of electricity. We will have to stay here until we've found a new place, but that can took a while. Meantime, the owner received her rent for the month and we sit in the 'dark' since the first week of the month (April). She most probably wants rent for the next month too and we are still looking for a new place.