SLUM WARS - The Quest for Justice

On Friday the 17th of April I received a letter from the Slumlord's attorney which amounted to a lot of waffle. My client denies this and my client has given notice and my client is a royal pain in the neck.


Here follow a few extracts from my letter in response:

Thank you for your letter which acknowledges the dispute between the tenant (X) and the landlord (Y).

Thank you for acknowledging that a lease agreement does in fact exist between both parties, and that reasonable conditions can be applied to both parties in terms of the common law and common law tests i.t.o. ‘the reasonable man’.

Thank you for acknowledging that a lease is terminable based on one month’s notice.

I do however note that in your letter no mention is made of the deposit paid in July 2007, a figure matching the rental figure requested by the landlord (R3500). This amount was deposited into the landlord’s account.

While the landlord did not issue a receipt for this transaction, neither did she issue receipts for rent paid over the past 21 months (your letter incorrectly stipulates the agreement being 18 months in duration up until the current date). Since no receipts for each month’s rent were provided, does this mean that no rent was paid for 21 months?

Your letter also refers incorrectly to ‘two undated communications’. In fact the first letter of demand was dated 21/01/2009, followed by a ‘Warning letter’ relating to incidents the following month (16/02/09 and 17/02/09 with the contents of the letter refering to the fact that the letter was written immediately after these incidents and rent paid on the 17^th. A copy of the letter was also emailed to the tenants at X XXXX Road which will corroborate the timing of the second letter. A third letter was written on 09/04/2009 and copies were sent to the landlord’s daughter, placed at the landlady’s door (a video confirms this process) door and provided to the tenants at X XXXX Road. It was immediately following this third letter that the landlady elected to respond by means of her Final Notice (Given to me by hand at 6pm on 9 April.)

This letter serves to indicate the following:

1) That the landlady is liable, at a minimum, for a deposit paid in July 2007, to the value of R3500.

2) That the landlady was informed to repay the deposit (by SMS) on Saturday 18 April 2009.

3) That the landlord has not admitted any liability or preparedness to pay the deposit back.

In addition:

4) The landlady is liable for damages, including – through her continued occupation of the garage, swimming pool area (for washing) and repeated intrusions – and for allegations made against me which required me to miss several days from work and the stress and damage this caused to my mental state. This amount is set as R1000 per month x 12 and R5000 for the most recent accusations = R17 000.

5) Furthermore the landlady was asked on several occasions to provide a utility bill or contract in order to register my car in Gauteng. Failure to do so resulted in my car being impounded and my (X) being liable for several fines as a result. Restitutio is set at R1500.

6) Furthermore locks (3 sets) have had to be fitted to prevent further illegal accessing of the premises. [R500]

7) The total amount owing is R22 500.

The above white post it demonstrates the schizophrenic attitude of the police. You have one incompetent officer trying to make a false accusation stick while another offers useful advice on how to defend oneself under these circumstances. Written in Afrikaans it suggests:
1) Point out that a warning statement was taken on the 14th of April
2) An arrest was issued on the 16th.
3) Another case (intimidation) was opened on the 16th
4) Case centres around the fact that the slumlord has been using the garage as a kitchen, swimming pool area as a laundry and otherwise has no official residence but is essentially squatting in the same premises she is renting.
5) Mention you are hiring a space she is squatting in.

Our friend at the station also provided us with a map with the magistrate's court and the prosecutor gave us verbal instructions on how and where to go to fill in documents to sue for our deposit (the corner of Fox and Ntembe streets).

Today (21 April) I received a call from Mr Diedericks at the Gauteng Rental Housing Tribunal who indicated he was going to prosecute this case (for free) on my behalf.

When I arrived home today my girlfriend said the slumlord had been messing about in the garage. One of the reasons I removed the fridge and other kitchen apparatus was to discourage her from moving between my vehicle and her piles of garbage several times a day. I have no idea what she was doing in the garage but sent her a stern SMS (the umpteenth warning) to stay out of space that we are paying for.

I understand what prompted her to go into the garage. My car is in for repairs and I have been using my girlfriends car, so with the garage empty it creates the impression no one is home. My girlfriend though is home, but as usual the slumlord considers it her right and her business to sniff around wherever she wants whenever she wants, no matter how often she is warned.

I also found, upon returning home, a pile of boxes dumped in front of my garage, effectively obstructing me from driving into the garage. Once again the slumlord's behaviour defies explanation.

What remains for the last 9 days of April is to see whether she will pay the deposit voluntarily. My guess is that she will not.
1) Because she cannot - because she has no money
2) Because she is going to try to play dumb and pretend it was never paid
3) She may be buying time to pay the deposit back using the other rental income she receives to do so.
4) However if she relies on the latter she runs the risk of the property being occupied for another month due to her failure to honor her side of it (refunding of the deposit which gives the tenant an opportunity to seek alternative accomodation and 1 calendar month's notice - for the same reason).

The next few days ought to be interesting. As it stands the slumlord has been spending a few days sleeping here and then a few days imposing on the charity of others. She tries to hide her vehicle down the road when she is here which confirms that she is trying to sneak around and is generally up to mischief. Stay tuned for more episodes from the Twilight Zone of Suburbia's Most Rotten Neighbors.