Asked by the Customer on 23-07-2014 16:10:23
Question posted in the Landlord Tenant Law category relating to Western Cape
Question posted in the Landlord Tenant Law category relating to Western Cape
We are tenants who have been paying our rent monthly. Our landlord has threatened to evict us from the premises and very upruptly. What rights do you have as a tenant? Can the landlord simply evict you? We are looking for alternative accommodation and they still want us to pay even though we not getting our deposit back.
We initially got put in that house by the agent and when she went through marital issues, we stuggled to get hold of her and she didn't render her service, but we kept paying her. Then we simply stopped beacuse we wanted the owners to fix the roof as it was leaking terribly, our furniture is damaged becasue of that.
Then one Saturday in last year the owner's mother/mother-in-law came to the house and spoke, when ther arranged to pay her directly and up to date, which we done. With this we no longer had an agent, valid contract and we lost our deposit. We also explain to her that the roof is leaking and there are other things that needs to be taken care of.
Then the beginning of the year, they geyser broke and we informed the mother/mother-in-law and she said they'll get the roof fixed and the geyser, which never happened. We had to boil water in order to bath for almost 5months and everytime it rains, we eithr put towels or newspaper on the floors and furniture not to damage further. We kept informing them, but still nothing happened.
Then we got a letter from the owner stating that we owe them R18000 and if we don't pay up, we must evacuate their premise immediately. We then got hold of all our receipts and showed the mother/mother-in-law and then she said, we can get the geyser fixed, she will refund us and give us a contract. Nothing happened...
Last month the owner started phoning my mother directly and telling her that we need to get out of their house immediately. Everytime my mother wanted to explain to the gentleman that we do not have other accommodation, and we will move as soon as we get another house. They were quiet for a week and then started again. We then decided last week to get legal advice, in order to get us more time not to move until we get another house. This has now become a big mess and the owners are simply rude and don't want to understand anything.
We urgently need advice in this matter.
I hope i made myself clear.
We initially got put in that house by the agent and when she went through marital issues, we stuggled to get hold of her and she didn't render her service, but we kept paying her. Then we simply stopped beacuse we wanted the owners to fix the roof as it was leaking terribly, our furniture is damaged becasue of that.
Then one Saturday in last year the owner's mother/mother-in-law came to the house and spoke, when ther arranged to pay her directly and up to date, which we done. With this we no longer had an agent, valid contract and we lost our deposit. We also explain to her that the roof is leaking and there are other things that needs to be taken care of.
Then the beginning of the year, they geyser broke and we informed the mother/mother-in-law and she said they'll get the roof fixed and the geyser, which never happened. We had to boil water in order to bath for almost 5months and everytime it rains, we eithr put towels or newspaper on the floors and furniture not to damage further. We kept informing them, but still nothing happened.
Then we got a letter from the owner stating that we owe them R18000 and if we don't pay up, we must evacuate their premise immediately. We then got hold of all our receipts and showed the mother/mother-in-law and then she said, we can get the geyser fixed, she will refund us and give us a contract. Nothing happened...
Last month the owner started phoning my mother directly and telling her that we need to get out of their house immediately. Everytime my mother wanted to explain to the gentleman that we do not have other accommodation, and we will move as soon as we get another house. They were quiet for a week and then started again. We then decided last week to get legal advice, in order to get us more time not to move until we get another house. This has now become a big mess and the owners are simply rude and don't want to understand anything.
We urgently need advice in this matter.
I hope i made myself clear.
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