Question posted in the Landlord Tenant Law category relating to Western Cape
Good morning, I am in a situation here.I leased house share and have a lease with a company thats in the middle of a legal battle with the property owners. I paid my rental and deposit to this company without being notified of this legal battle. The owners of the property now approached me and told me that they have legally taken over the property and I am now liable to pay them the rental, but they are not liable for my securities deposit. They said I will have to enter a new agreement with them and pay them a deposit if i wish to stay further at the property, and that the deposit I paid the company Im intially made the lease with, they are not be responsible. Now, Both parties are now separately demanding that I pay them the rentals.Now Im not sure who Im to pay, and Im not sure whats going to happen to my security deposit.Please refer to the official communication I received below from the company I had the initial agreement with.
OFFICIAL COMMUNICATION/ GEORGE
Goodmorning Tenant. I would wish to clarify issues surrounding your tenancy and hope this message shall form clarity.
I have done business with the SUNRISE STREET since 2014. My model of business was to lease their once brothels and gang dens, which I would renovate and later sublet. It is a business that I had invested over R3M.
In 2017 once they realised that I had turned around these brothels into reasonable accommodation they started showing signs of greed. They tried to grab my business using various tricks and I always came up top.
My business employed over 12 people including Jasmine, Papa, Betty and many other South Africans.
That business was my livelihood where I invested all my earnings from my previous job.
My children and other dependents were fed, medicated and educated from the income of my business. It is also important to let you know that I have lived in South Africa since 2004, I was young in my early 20s when I arrived in South Africa. I was homeless, I started life sleeping on the streets of Capetown and built my life with my own hands. I have no single criminal record nor debt. I am a self made man!
Last year 2019 in June, Andrew Chin called a meeting in Claremont and told his gang their trust was struggling with bank debts and cases with SARS and HAWKS, they badly wanted to increase their revenues and my business was targeted as a source that could give them this leap they so badly needed. I learnt of it through their own staff. They came up with plans to fail my business and one of their plans was to ensure they install new prepaid meters which were heavily indebted by COCT unpaid bills. Remember all the years I had paid bills to their accounts not direct to the council as per agreement.
One week later they informed me they are changing meters at properties because the council is complaining of lack of access to the properties and also there was tampering with the connectivity. This was a bluntant lie, they have never had their houses compliant in the first place, and council had never been denied access for the years I leased these properties.
They knew by installing prepaid meters, I will be automatically tasked to pay up their debt through the purchases of prepaid electricity. So they installed the meters and electricity consumption went from R15000 to R40000 a month at Kent only. They did this to other properties.
I HAD LEASED 6 BIG PROPERTIES BELOW1. 30 AND 28 KENT WOODSTOCK 2. 78 ROCHESTER ROAD OBS3. 77 ROCHESTER ROAD OBS4. 91 ROCHESTER ROAD OBS5. 49 ROODEBLOEM WOODSTOCK 6. 19 FENTON ROAD IN SALT RIVER
When someone from their office shared with me statements from the council it indicated that all the money I have been paying for water and electricity, they had not paid most of it to council so their bills had accumulated and the only way to get rid of the accumulated bills was to install these prepaid meters with a huge debt and offload the burden to me for the same bills I have been paying over the years.
Indeed my bills became unbearable and they were not willing to face the truth and do the right thing!
They kept on lying that they are handling the situation, instead blaming the council, I have all these communications from them! This behaviour was a breach of both trust and agreement. It put my business in a precarious position. They started dropping letters to my tenants urging them to pay rent to them, I further vehemently disagreed with them because this was an overreach. I involved Lawyers and they ran into a panic. They pleaded with me not to involve the lawyers and we went for a round table discussion. It was not fruitful because they refused to remove the indebted metres.
Immediately after the roundtable discussion they filed a case against me and tried to persuade the court to cancel my Leases which was not easy because they had no legal ground. Judge Baatman at the Capetown High court denied them their plea! She is a calm black Judge and she asked them questions which they couldn't answer!
They then corruptly through influence peddling filed another application this time to sequestrate me and this time it was before a white judge.
Without any due process, using money and influence and racial advantage, I was sequestrated in two months. My business faultily grabbed and immediately overtaken by them. For those of you who may not know what it means, sequestration is when you are declared bankrupt. But it is a process that will involve proof that indeed your expenditure is far higher than your income and you are irreparably broke! This was not the case with me, my business was sound, I only suffered a business malpractice that I thought SUNRISE TRUST would swallow their pride and acknowledge and find remedy.
I want you to note that you have a Lease agreement with SLEEPAZDEN and which are not cancelled as yet, so your leases with SLEEPAZDEN are still valid legally.
I also want you to know that Vincent Mutyaba and Andrew Chin have a bad record with the Woodstock police, they have been arrested several times on issues related to abusing tenants and robbing from their houses and I am sure most of you will have the same problem with them. I advise you to report them to the police if they become a problem. Their record with police is an ugly one.
My business was grabbed and just because I was a black man and foreigner in a country whose xenophobic sentiments continue alarming the world, justice ethos continue to fade in oblivion. I was not sequestrated because I was broke, but because they maneuvered the process using the racial advantage and hiding behind the courts of law!
I just therefore wish to inform you that, because the process of my sequestration was manipulated and stage managed, you as my tenants were kept in the dark and therefore not protected. However your lease with SLEEPAZDEN is still valid, and we urge you to continue paying your LESSOR for all your other claims to be valid, if you chose not to pay SLEEPAZDEN and pay SUNRISE TRUST, then it means that you have chosen a new LESSOR and you will be in breach with SLEEPAZDEN.
If you feel that you need protection, I advise you to get legal advice and seek clarity on this matter.
They are wrong to make you pay to them
They are wrong to ask you to sign new Leases with them
They are wrong to tell you that they know nothing about your security deposit yet I have banked it in their trust account all these years.
THEY GRABBED MY BUSINESS AND THREATENED TO KILL ME. THE ONLY WRONG I DID, I EXPOSED THEIR STEALING METHODS.
Going forward whoever is paying rent to them, insist on getting a receipt to be safe in the near future. The law is going to catch up with them. Insist on a receipt that bears their TAX NUMBER and their SUNRISE TRUST address and contacts.
I may not fight them directly because I am a foreigner but for the years I have been with them, I know how they have flaunted the rules and time for accountability is now!PLEASE HELP ME WITH HOW TO PROCEED GOING FORWARD.
Do I ask for the deposit from the landlord that I have the agreement with? And pay the owners of the property. Or is it the Owners of the property's who have taken over's responsibility? How am I protected in this situation?
Message from the Attorney
Hi there,
First, what exactly is "SLEEPAZDEN"? I know that it is your landlord, but is it a company, or a close corporation, or what? How is it described in the lease agreement?
Message from the Customer
SLEEPAZDEN
Registration number K2017/510919/07
PRIVATE COMPANY
Message from the Attorney
From a CIPC search that I've conducted, it appears to me that Sleepazden is a privately registered company with registration number 2017/510919/07.
That means that it is a separate legal entity, different to George (assuming that it is George who wrote the email, and that it is George who got sequestrated)
This means that your lease agreement with Sleepazden continues to operate, notwithstanding the fact that George was sequestrated.
I think what you need to do is to write to the owners of the property and explain the following -
1. You signed a lease with Sleepazden (Pty) Ltd
2. You are advised that this lease continues to operate
3. You are legally obliged to continue with the terms and conditions of the lease agreement
4. You will therefore continue to pay the monthly rental to Sleepazden (Pty) Ltd, until such time as the lease is cancelled, or Sleepazden (Pty) Ltd is liquidated as a company.
5. You will require your deposit back once the lease is cancelled.
You should also then tell the owners that you are not going to deal with them until they can provide you with proof that Sleepazden (Pty) Ltd is no longer the leasing agents for the property.
Only if Sleepazden (Pty) Ltd is liquidated, will the property "go back" to the owners. Only then will they be entitled to deal with you directly.
Message from the Attorney
I also note that Sleepazden (Pty) Ltd has 3 directors!
M M BWIREP
P BASSONG
P OSINYA
So, this reinforces what I said above. Just because one of the directors has been sequestrated, does not mean that the company ceases to operate, specifically because the company has another 2 directors who can run the company!
Message from the Customer
So Sunrise Trust have provided with the following documentation:
A copy of:
Dated:( Court Order stamp 2020/01/26)
1. the Final sequestration in the high court of S.A. between A. Chin, D L Kretzmar,S. G Sollinger (The trustees for the time being of Th Sunrise Trust with Registration Number :IT3208/2011) (1st,2nd & 3rd Applicant)
And
George T Osinya
Dated:(No Date)
2. A Memorandum Of Agreement between the lessors The Sunrise Trust and Lessee G. P. Osinya
The Lessors let to the lessee for a a fixed period of 3 years reckoned from 01 Sept 2016 and terminating on 31 Sept 2018 on which date the lessee undertakes to vacate the property.
(This document appears to be signed by Mr Osinya and one of the trustees or their representative.)
(Whether this document is real or fraudulent I do not know, )
Dated: 27 Sept 2019
3. a letter from Sunrise Trust with their letterhead written :
Dear Tenant
This serves to inform you that the lease agreement between Mr G Osinya and Sunrise Trust has ended.
Should you wish to continue to rent please contact the office to make new arrangements and sign a lease agreement. In the interim, rental payments via eft should be made to: Sunrise trust..banking details.
Signed Sunrise Trust
Dated: 30 Aug 2019
4. another letter addressed to Mr. Osinya from The Sunrise Trust
Renewal of lease
The Sunrise Trust has repeatedly requested you to settle the arrears amounts on all the properties you currently rent from the trust. You are currently in breach of contractual agreements on all properties. The trust informed you of problems with the bank account that resulted in your August payments being returned to you. There has been no effort on your part to ensure payment of monies due to the trust.
The trust acknowledges the typing error on the lease agreement for 19 fenton road and accepts that the current lease will terminate on 30 September 2019.
This letter serves to inform you that the Sunrise Trust will not be renewing the lease on the property 19 fenton road when it expires on 30 September 2019.
Should all arrears amounts be paid up before the time, this decision may be reconsidered.
Message from the Customer
Or is my lease agreement still valid, as SLEEPAZDEN is still claiming that I have to honour my agreement with them?
Is there specific legal documentation e.g. a court eviction order regarding Sunrise Trust and SLEEPAZDEN before my agreement with SLEEPAZDEN is considered NULL?
Do I sign a new agreement with the owners Sunrise Trust? Will I forfeit my deposit in doing so? I just want to stay on the right side of the law.
Do I cancel my agreement with SLEEPAZDEN?
I just need to know how I can stay on the right side of the law and protected in all of this.
I don't know how I even ended up in this mess!
OR DOES YOUR FIRST ANSWER STILL STAND?
Thank you so much for your assistance Att. Patrick
Much much appreciated.
Message from the Attorney
So, you've explained that there was a Memorandum Of Agreement between the lessors The Sunrise Trust and Lessee G. P. Osinya, but how then did Sleepazden get the rights to lease the property to you?
Was there an initial lease between Sunrise and Osinya, and then a second lease between Osinya and Sleepazden, and then a third lease between Sleepazden and you?
If so, Osinya's sequestration would bring about an immediate end to that chain of leases. Your lease would therefore be at an end.
You would then need to sign a new lease with Sunrise.
You would have a claim against Sleepazden for the return of your deposit.
I don't know how Sleepazden could still claim that your lease is valid, if they can't prove to you that it, itself, has the right to lease out the property. Sleepazden must show you HOW it gets that right. It must show you it's lease agreement. If that lease agreement is with Osinya, who is sequestrated, then you have a major problem!
Sunrise will need to evict you from the premises through court.
My advice, is sign a new lease, and then claim the return of the deposit from Sleepazden.