If I have a lease contract that I recently signed (October 2019 until September 2020) Am I allowed to give a months notice with the new laws? Or will I pay a penalty? What is the maximum penalty I wil pay? 

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.

I assume that you entered into the lease agreement in your personal capacity, and not on behalf of a company / close corporation that you are the owner. In other words, you are the tenant, not your company.

If this is the case, then in terms of the Consumer Protection Act [Google: cancel fixed term contract] you are legally entitled to cancel the lease agreement (any fixed term contract actually!) for any reason whatsoever by giving the landlord 20 business days' written notice - which works out to about a months' notice. 

During this time, you are required to pay your normal rental and comply with the terms of the lease. Thereafter, you can move out and you are then entitled to the return of your deposit, etc. 

However, also in terms of the Consumer Protection Act, the landlord is entitled to charge you "a reasonable cancellation penalty".

Exactly what a reasonable cancellation penalty is, depends on the circumstances, but it is normally 1 months' rental (at a minimum) and could be as much as 2 or 3 months' rental. You could imagine that if the landlord takes a long time to find a new tenant, the reasonable cancellation penalty could be 2 or 3 months' rental, however if he finds a replacement tenant quite quickly, he might only be entitled to 1 months' rental as a penalty. 

He can't charge you damages until the end of the lease which, in your situation, would amount to 9 months' rental.

It needs to be "reasonable". The landlord also has a duty to mitigate any damages, so he needs to try his best to find a new tenant, at a reasonable rental. He can't sit back and do nothing to find a new tenant and then sue you for all of his loses. 

So, you'd be looking at about 1 or 2 months' rental as a penalty. 

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

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