Asked by the Customer on 01-12-2015 20:53:25
Question posted in the Landlord Tenant Law category relating to Eastern Cape
Question posted in the Landlord Tenant Law category relating to Eastern Cape
I have a tenant whose lease expired at the end of October. No provision was made in the lease for renewal as I do not make this provision until a tenant has leased at least 1 year. As this tenant defaulted during the lease I advised them that I could not renew lease & gave a new lease to another tenant as from 1st November. Now the old tenant is refusing to move & of course not paying and the new tenant has already paid rent & deposit and states that he is going to move in come hell or high water as it is his right to occupy and has a valid lease whilst the old tenants lease has expired HELP
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Message from the Customer
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Message from the Attorney
Posted by Att. Patrick on 01-12-2015 21:52:57
Hi there Basil and thank you for your question,
Legally speaking, your old tenant's lease has expired, and he needs to vacate the leased premises forthwith. If he does not vacate the premises, then you will need to evict him. Unfortunately you are not allowed to "take the law into your own hands" and evict him yourself. If you do this, he could apply to court for an order directing you to let him back into the premises. Whether he does this or not - I don't know. You would need to hire an attorney and apply to court in terms of the PIE Act. The bad news is that this could take 3 months to get him out!
Your new tenant is obviously going to be upset because he can't move in. Contractually you need to provide him with vacant occupation of the premises. If you don't, he can hold you in breach of the lease agreement and can sue you for the return of his deposit, and possibly also damages. The damages might be very hard for him to prove, but there is always the risk.
If your new tenant says to you that he is going to move in "come hell or high water", then you may have a potential problem on your hands. What happens if your new tenant tries to evict your old tenant, and then moves in? Well, legally you've done nothing wrong, so the old tenant is in a conundrum. He could still apply to court, but he would then need to sue you and the new tenant.
Legally speaking, my advice is to apply to court through the PIE Act for the old tenant's eviction.
Another possibly solution is to pay the old tenant something ($$$) to encourage him to leave. You could assist with a rental truck so that he can move his stuff. You could offer to help carry. Basically anything to get him out. This would be the best, quickest, and cheapest route to go! Also, there would be no court cases and no lawyers involved.
If there is a part of the answer which you need more advice on, or clarity please continue in this same thread instead of opening a new question.
Att. Patrick
Please remember this is a dialog if you have follow up questions please use the REPLY button and ask. If I did not answer the question you thought you were asking, please respond with the specific question you wanted answered. I hope you found my answer helpful, and you have finished asking your questions, please click on the GREEN ACCEPT button in order to mark the question as closed.
Legally speaking, your old tenant's lease has expired, and he needs to vacate the leased premises forthwith. If he does not vacate the premises, then you will need to evict him. Unfortunately you are not allowed to "take the law into your own hands" and evict him yourself. If you do this, he could apply to court for an order directing you to let him back into the premises. Whether he does this or not - I don't know. You would need to hire an attorney and apply to court in terms of the PIE Act. The bad news is that this could take 3 months to get him out!
Your new tenant is obviously going to be upset because he can't move in. Contractually you need to provide him with vacant occupation of the premises. If you don't, he can hold you in breach of the lease agreement and can sue you for the return of his deposit, and possibly also damages. The damages might be very hard for him to prove, but there is always the risk.
If your new tenant says to you that he is going to move in "come hell or high water", then you may have a potential problem on your hands. What happens if your new tenant tries to evict your old tenant, and then moves in? Well, legally you've done nothing wrong, so the old tenant is in a conundrum. He could still apply to court, but he would then need to sue you and the new tenant.
Legally speaking, my advice is to apply to court through the PIE Act for the old tenant's eviction.
Another possibly solution is to pay the old tenant something ($$$) to encourage him to leave. You could assist with a rental truck so that he can move his stuff. You could offer to help carry. Basically anything to get him out. This would be the best, quickest, and cheapest route to go! Also, there would be no court cases and no lawyers involved.
If there is a part of the answer which you need more advice on, or clarity please continue in this same thread instead of opening a new question.
Att. Patrick
Please remember this is a dialog if you have follow up questions please use the REPLY button and ask. If I did not answer the question you thought you were asking, please respond with the specific question you wanted answered. I hope you found my answer helpful, and you have finished asking your questions, please click on the GREEN ACCEPT button in order to mark the question as closed.
Message from the Customer
The new tenant has been made aware that he has no right to evict the old tenant But he still states he is within his rights to occupy as he is presuming that the old tenant will just go gracefully once he realises that the new tenant has the legal right to occupy, whilst he does not. As the new tenant has friends of a different culture I think he intends to invite 2 friends to stay with him until the old tenant decides to move of his own free will
Message from the Attorney
Posted by Att. Patrick on 01-12-2015 23:00:47
O wow ... I think that your new tenant might have his own ideas as to coax the old tenant to leave. That might work for you in the short term, but I would watch out when the time comes for the new tenant to leave. You might have problems! But at any rate, your obligations to the old tenant are only "not to take the law into your own hands", and your obligations to your new tenant are to "give free and undisturbed use and enjoyment of the property to him". Legally the old tenant has no further rights to remain in the property.
Answer Accepted
This answer was accepted on 01-12-2015 23:02:46
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