Tension between landlords and tenants are rising in SA

With the shortage of rental stock, especially in Cape Town, where property prices are sky-high, there is growing tension between landlords and tenants.

Gary Phelps, Director of Sales at Icon Property Group, spoke to CapeTalk and 702's Africa Melane about so-called 'professional tenants' who avoid eviction, agents calling for application fees to view properties and three-month deposits.

Phelps said delinquent tenants are a common problem; courts are inundated with eviction orders.

He said a delinquent tenant can be someone who can no longer afford to pay the rent. "Or is paying the rent, but is in serious violation of the lease agreement. For example, they signed a lease for two people, but now 10 or 20 people are living there. They're running a shop or a mechanical workshop from the property as well."

Or they may be damaging the property in some way, explained Phelps.

The eviction process can be very expensive and time-consuming, he warned, recounting a recent eviction by a medical professional in Somerset West.

"It cost him R250,000to eventually get the people out of his house."

Phelps says this is exploitation.

"We do rental properties, we do not take a rental application form from every single person that wants to view the property. If you see a property and you want to apply, what we do is we charge a R250 application processing fee. The moment we know that you are now an applicant and you are approved for it, it gets credited against any further monies that you have to pay."

"So many times, people speak about the rights of the tenant. They forget that there are a lot of instances where working-class people have taken out a 20-year mortgage to buy that property. To invest in that property. And if that tenant, on the merit of the information available at the time of the application, is not approved, the landlord can suffer gross financial losses. And that's also something that we have to remember. But is it legal? It's completely legal."