Good day, my friend (lady friend not girlfriend just friends). We both completed the rental application but the lease contract is in her name alone, she signed for it alone, my name does not appear on the contact, only signed as whiteness.

My question, her dogs causes problems and ripped my washing  of the line, ripped apart the plants etc and I shouted at them but never hit them. She signed for a year till end Feb 2024. We had an verbal agreement that she pays the rent, water etc, I buy the food, buy electricity en diesel and take her to work and back and it work great till the dogs causes more problems. She decides to move out on 30 September 2023 as she agreed to with the owner and I was not involved in the communications nor arrangements not did I know about her moving out until 1 September 2023 when I got home she was packed and the brakkies came and fetched her stuff and left. The problem is she agreed to to owner to stay till 30 September 2023 and pay the rent + exit fee equal to the rent as bridge of contract but then she moved out on 1st September 2023, blocked Avery one and changes her cell number. I contacted the owner and told him happened, we neve fought of any problems, we knew each other for 24 years and very close fiends. The owner tried to contact her without any luck as she did not pay the rent as well as the exit fees as agreed. The owner sent a final demand whcij end date was 28 September for the 20 days then the owner went to court and registered a claim with the small claims court for R 19 000 odd including rent, exit fee, water etc and R 6 000 damages which I contested as there were no damages at all, the estates agent and myself did the entry inspection and all faults etc were pointed out and noted and the agent took pictures of them all, now there are no pictures and the owner claims that all is new damages which is refuse to accept.

The small claims court order implicated myself as well as my friend to pay the bill. The rental contract is in her nane alone and pointed it out to the owner as wel but he ignores everything and insists that we both have to pay up.

The house plans are not up to fate and dated back to May 1969 however a lot of changes have bne made to the house in years but no plans for any of it, I had plumbers came out to inspect the damp on the owners request and came to R 150 000 but the owner a d the estate agent ignored the quote a d got a much cheaper one which they accept and tried to cover up the problems to sell the house without plans or COC. Can I be held liable for the rent id the contract is not in my name?