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Johannesburg eviction lawyers Archives | Eviction Lawyers South Africa

Oct 01
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Shots fired as police and protesters clash over evictions

By | Eviction news, Eviction videos, Evictions, Protests

Reprinted from Talk of the Town, by Iavan Pijoos – 2020-09-29

Communities in the south of Johannesburg took to the streets on Monday morning to voice their frustration about possible evictions in the area.

Johannesburg metro cops and the police were out in full force in Lenasia South and Lawley early on Monday to contain protesters. Roads in the area were blocked with burning tyres, bags with rubbish, rocks and tree branches. Officers fired rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.

By midday on Monday, traffic was flowing but some roads were still being lined with rubbish and rocks. Heavily armed officers and police nyalas stood on the side of the road.

Children were removing some of the rocks as motorists were driving past.

Ennerdale ward 7 councillor Danny Netnow told TimesLIVE that the protests erupted after unconfirmed reports about possible evictions in the area. Netnow said the people were also unhappy about water and electricity cuts in the informal settlement.

He said schools had been closed after the protests around Ennerdale.

In recent months, the Red Ants have demolished scores of illegally erected dwellings — some made of brick and mortar — in the area, under instruction from city officials.

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Simon Dippenaar & Associates, Inc. is a firm of specialist eviction lawyers, based in Cape Town and now operating in Johannesburg and Durban, helping both landlords and tenants with the eviction process. Contact one of our eviction attorneys on 086 099 5146 or sdippenaar@sdlaw.co.za if you need advice on the eviction process or if you are facing unlawful eviction. We also offer online consultations.

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Aug 13
0

Rental tenants believe they can only pay rent after a 10% reduction

By | Eviction news, Eviction notice, Eviction orders, Evictions, Rent
About 88 percent of rental tenants believe they will only be able to afford monthly rentals that’s reduced by 10 percent for the next 12 months, while more than a third say they intend to move for a better deal, due to the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown. Picture Pixabay
About 88 percent of rental tenants believe they will only be able to afford monthly rentals that’s reduced by 10 percent for the next 12 months, while more than a third say they intend to move for a better deal, due to the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown. Picture Pixabay

CAPE TOWN – About 88 percent of rental tenants believe they will only be able to afford monthly rentals that’s reduced by 10 percent for the next 12 months, while more than a third say they intend to move for a better deal, due to the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown.

These were according to findings of a survey by digital rental platform, HouseME, among more than 1000 of its tenants and landlords in June and July.

The findings reveal the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown and economic slowdown on the residential property market, in stark black and white, and a major concern is when the payment holidays end.

Property entrepreneur and Only Realty managing director Grant Smee said: “We’ are seeing an excess amount of vacant properties. Tenants have either: been evicted; had to move out due to affordability; or, in the case of Airbnb’s, are vacant due to a lack of tourism. This is particularly evident in Cape Town, our major tourism hub”.

Smee said while evictions had been an ethical “grey area” during lockdown, eviction lawyers were preparing for an influx of cases. He said the topic of eviction, however, remained contentious, and was placing big pressure on both landlords and tenants.

In the HouseME survey, the majority of landlords (85 percent) in the HouseME survey own bonded properties, so it was unsurprising that 37 percent said they could not afford to self-fund more than one month of vacancy, with half of those landlords indicating they could not fund even a single month of vacancy.

However, 41 percent of landlords were expecting rentals to remain unchanged for the next 12 months, and 24 percent expected rentals to increase.

With 28 percent of tenants already having had their income negatively affected, either through job loss or salary reduction, and 21 percent concerned about income security in the next six months, the mismatch of expectations between landlords and tenants was likely to cause tension when it comes to property pricing and negotiation, said HouseME chief executive Ben Shaw.

“A major concern for landlords, banks and property managers is what will happen when the payment holidays end. Landlords who have had the benefit of delaying home loan repayments may now be forced to ruthlessly pursue rental to cover their payments,” he said.

Tenants who had rental payment holidays could now also be within days of default.

“We expect the national default rate to spike in August and September and this will have a knock-on effect on property value, credit records and general affordability by the consumer,” said Shaw.

A quarter of all landlords surveyed listed non-payment of rental as their biggest worry going forward, followed by vacancies (19 percent) and late payments (16 percent).

“The economic recession is already biting hard among tenants, with some respondents saying that moving costs are prohibitive given their current liquidity position, and some even citing petrol and travel costs for viewings as a barrier,” said Shaw.

Shaw said the pandemic had fast-tracked the move to digital, which was reflected in accelerated adoption of the HouseME platform.

“We have seen an 80 percent jump in units advertised since the first quarter of the year; driven by larger property portfolios – all of whom are now moving digital, seeking the cost efficiencies of a long-term letting platform.

“Our listings climbed from an average of 400 pre-lockdown to more than 750 in July. This was partly due to the influx of fully-furnished holiday-let units now seeking long-term tenants, because they could no longer rely on the short-term market for income.

“This increased supply is likely to further push down rental prices, particularly in major cities – both tourist and business centres – until tourism picks up again,” said Shaw.

Smee said a prolonged buyers’ market had seen a spike in residential property sales since June. “It is important to take a conservative, calculated and logical approach when purchasing or selling a property,” he said.

Reprinted from Iol by Edward West (emphasis by SD Law*)

Simon Dippenaar & Associates, Inc. is a firm of specialist eviction lawyers, based in Cape Town and now operating in Johannesburg and Durban, helping both landlords and tenants with the eviction process. Contact one of our eviction attorneys on 086 099 5146 or sdippenaar@sdlaw.co.za if you need advice on the eviction process or if you are facing unlawful eviction.

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Aug 12
0

‘Shots fired’, items burnt in Duduza eviction raises red flags

By | Eviction news, Evictions
IN PICS: ‘Shots fired’, items burnt in Duduza eviction raises red flags

Some of the shacks being set alight during the raid. Photo: supplied.

Officers responded to the area from Wednesday and demolished shacks built next to the river.

In a letter penned to the executive mayor of the city of Ekurhuleni, the Black First Land First (BLF) has questioned an eviction by the city’s officers, where Ekurhuleni Metro (EMPD) officer’s targetted Ward 102 in Duduza and allegedly set alight some of the properties.

According to the BLF, the EMPD without warning or a court order evicted over 100 people and destroyed around 34 shacks, last week in the bustling township of Duduza, in Tembisa.

In the letter seen by The Citizen, the movement alleges EMPD officers unleashed rubber bullets, destroyed shacks and set some goods on fire during the unlawful attacks on scores of people, left homeless following the eviction.

At the scene of the evictions, BLF arrived to find people in grief, with two children aged two and three, with no clothes except for the clothes on their backs.

“Yet again we see the state denying rights to the most vulnerable of our society.

“There is no dispute that the evictions carried out are unlawful. Let’s remind you, Mr Mayor, that when the national lockdown commenced, the Government Gazette on 26 March 2020, stated that ‘all evictions and the execution of attachment orders, both movable and immovable, including the removal of movable assets and sales in execution is suspended with immediate effect for the duration of the lockdown’.

“This regulation is in place under Level 3 of the lockdown. Therefore even if there was a court order to evict, such an order would be suspended by the regulation. In this case, it’s worse because no court order has in fact been obtained according to the victims of the evictions by your police.”

The movement, urging the city to return all confiscated material, asked for those whose belongings were burnt to be compensated. Action against officers who broke the law by executing an unlawful eviction must be taken, BLF demanded.

“I also wish to remind you that in terms of the Constitution no one may be evicted without a court order. Section 26(3) of the Constitution is clear that ‘no one may be evicted from their home, or have their home demolished, without an order of court made after considering all the relevant circumstances,’” the movement said.

While the movement has called for answers including evidence of the court order, attempts to contact the city were fruitless at the time of publishing, despite numerous attempts to the city, for comment. It was in a Sowetan report, that MMC for community safety Phaladi Mmoko defended its decision to demolish shacks in the informal settlement, in Tembisa.

Mmoko justified the eviction by stating that the people had attempted a land invasion, as they had not lived in the area for a long time.

“If we were going to be found sleeping on our job we were going to be dealing with thousands. If a person occupies government land illegally, we are duty-bound to go and remove that person. Our interest is to safeguard the property of the municipality.”

While the police, Ekurhuleni metro, and BLF butt heads over the questionable eviction, the Human Rights Commission’s Gushwell Brooks in providing some insight on evictions, said the commission’s stance on the evictions issue was for evictions to be put on hold, as they would render people homeless, considering the current economical climate.

Proper legal notice, with measures to accommodate the tenants, with an alternative were necessary steps in ensuring human rights took precedent.

Although he said the commission urged the Gauteng government to put a hold on evictions, he noted that there remained issues of land invasions that most metro’s had to address, which in turn resulted in a “double-edged sword” scenario.

Reprinted from The Citizen (emphasis by SD Law*)

Simon Dippenaar & Associates, Inc. is a firm of specialist eviction lawyers, based in Cape Town and now operating in Johannesburg and Durban, helping both landlords and tenants with the eviction process. Contact one of our eviction attorneys on 086 099 5146 or sdippenaar@sdlaw.co.za if you need advice on the eviction process or if you are facing unlawful eviction.

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