Pretoria - The South African Rental Housing Act needs amendments and regulations that will address contemporary disputes between landlords and tenants.
In this regard, many clash over things like the deposit, rent consistency and legal and illegal evictions.
This is according to head of legal services at the Department of Human Settlements Advocate Khwezi Ngwenya.
He heard comments from landlords, tenants and agencies in the housing rental industry about the legislation which seeks to ensure amicable dispute resolution mechanism in the sector.
He said although the sector was complex because of the various stakeholders involved, one of the biggest problems to solve was ensuring that landlords paid tenants back their deposit money when they vacated their premises.
This, however, meant that awareness needed to be created in the more formal sector, but also in the township where the business is informal, but actually contributes 80% of the tenant-landlord population.
Advocate Ngwenya also said the regulations sought to protect everybody including landlords or property companies and agents.
Landlords did not even need to wait for rent to be missed more than once before bringing the matter to the tribunal, where both parties would be heard and attachment orders issued. This means that tenants and landlords do not necessarily need to go to the Magistrate’s Court to resolve disputes.
Pretoria News