How to spot a bad landlord when searching for property for rent in South Africa
The nightmare tales about bad landlords are endless. The power trips when you switch on the stove, and they refuse to send out an electrician. They geyser bursts and they don’t get back to you for days. And you thought the landlord looked so nice. However, nice people can be bad landlords. So how do you spot a bad landlord when you are looking for property for rent in South Africa?
The secret about bad landlords is that they are in it for the money. They bargain on your rent every month, but they definitely do not budget for expenses linked to the property. If you are searching for property for rent in South Africa, you can pick up on this without even meeting the landlord. When you go to view the property, the signs should be everywhere.
Is the house painted for example? A good landlord would want his property in a good condition and would therefore paint the house when needed.
Are the carpets clean, and does the rental contract stipulate the landlord would professionally clean the carpets before you move in?
Leaking taps, cracks in walls, mouldy bathrooms and broken windows are all signs that the landlord doesn’t fix things when it breaks. If you are looking for property for rent in South Africa, and you see any of the above signs, either get the landlord to sign that he will get it fixed, or move on the another property.
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So true, In 2008 we viewed a 3 bedroomed place in Factreton commonly advertised as “Kensington, Maitland”. Upon arrival we were met by the current tenants and soon after with the LANDLORDS. Together we toured the house and found crayon markings on almost every wall in almost every bedroom, mouldy ceilings and a fungi infested shower cubicle. According to the LANDLORDS this was done by the current tenants of 4 months and told us that all this will be rectified before we move in should we be interested in occupying the property.
However we agreed and decided to rent the place. A day before we moved in, we received a call from the LANDLORDS notifying us that the place was not cleaned up yet, because they thought that the previous tenants would move earlier, so that they could have the property painted. However they also indicated that, If we want to move in to the property at the date stipulated we can opt to paint the interior ourselves and they would deduct it from the deposit so we would then pay them a lesser deposit. We agreed and we moved in painting the place, fumigating the place and ridding the fungi in the toilet and ridding the mould on the ceillings.
One week later after settling in the LANDLORDS make contact and arrange to meet at the property we were renting from them. Again, we toured the house together and was impressed at the results of our input in cleaning up the property. We pointed out some concerns with regards to the security gates being rusted and the exterior could do with a fresh paint job. At the time lots of promises was made by the LANDLORDS and assured us that this will be replaced and a fresh coat of paint would be applied to the exterior of the house. One year has gone by and nothing was done, then on a day the water has been discontinued and we contacted the LANDLORDS to aware them from the inconvenience and we were told about their family problems and that they are sure that the disconnection of the water is a mistake from the City of Cape Town and that they will pursue it as soon as possible. It left us with 2 days without water.
On another occasion the geyser’s overflow was gauging out water and was not heating up at all. Again we contacted the LANDLORDS to notify them about the issue and they contacted a guy from across the street that we personally new to have a look at the problem. However, this guy was no way qualified as an artisan in the plumbing industry or of any sort. A week has gone by and after back and forth with the LANDLORDS they finally sent a QUALIFIED PLUMBER to replace the geyser as it could not be repaired.
After almost three years, the property on the outside is still not painted as we were told that they are not “OBLIGED TO PAINT THE EXTERIOR UPON REQUEST FROM THE TENANT”. Now as memory serves me, we have not asked them to paint the property outside! they “PROMISED” to paint it along with the other defects that up until today is still not applied.
We are now finally moving out of the property and have notified the LANDLORDS thereof. Our discussion led to the deposit and the LANDLORDS answer to this was I QUOTE: “As a point of departure regarding your question regarding the deposit, please note that we will endeavour to assist where we can”. Come on man you not doing us a favour, You owe us the deposit including the interest as indicated in the lease agreement, that our deposits paid will be inserted into a “interest bearing account” and that the full sum is issued upon departure provided there are no damages to the property. Now for damages there aren’t any because the property is exactly the way we got it when we moved in except that we have painted the interior for the second time round and further more the oven is still not working since 2 and a half years ago, the loose kitchen sink is still, um, loose and the security gates is just rusting more and more each day.
So how do we deal with this kind of behaviour from LANDLORDS?
Rental in South Africa does not come cheap, not to mention the treatment you receive from these sorts of LANDLORDS that are “NICE”?.
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