Landlords vs Tenants Round 1

Below are 10 hypothetical scenarios involving (bad) landlords, and tenants, and the relevant sections in the Rental Housing Act that may be applicable. No other Acts like the PIE Act were used for these scenarios.

1. A and B, a young couple, applies to rent a 2-bedroom garden cottage after seeing an online advertisement. During the viewing, the landlord, Z, notices that B is pregnant. The credit checks of A and B turn out good, and A and B has a good references from their previous landlord.
   The next day, Z calls B and tells her he does not want to lease to them, because he does not want a temperamental pregnant woman in his cottage.

 

4 General provisions

(1) In advertising a dwelling for purposes of leasing it, or in negotiating a lease with a prospective tenant, or during the term of a lease, a landlord may not unfairly discriminate against such prospective tenant or tenants, or the members of such tenant’s household or the visitors of such tenant, on one or more grounds, including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, sexual orientation, ethnic or social origin, colour, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth.

 

2. J, a tenant, has installed an indoor security camera because he has a suspicion that someone enters when he’s not there. While at work he receives a notification of movement. He sees his landlord, H, walking through the apartment, opening kitchen cupboards and going through them and then she also enters the bathroom. H did not provide any notice or asked for permission.
   That evening J confronts his landlord, and H says she has the right as the owner to enter and do a search whenever she wants to.

 

4(2) A tenant has the right, during the lease period, to privacy, and the landlord may only exercise his or her right of inspection in a reasonable manner after reasonable notice to the tenant.
(3) The tenant’s rights as against the landlord include his or her right not to have—
(a) his or her person or home searched;
(b) his or her property searched;

 

3. M worked at a manufacturing company and due to downsizing, he was retrenched.
   He falls behind on his rent, and after two months, his landlord, P, uses a spare key and enters the apartment. P removes M’s gaming console, television, and a mountain bike.
   P leaves a note that the items will only be returned when rent is paid up in full.

 

4(3) The tenant’s rights as against the landlord include his or her right not to have—
(c) his or her possessions seized, except in terms of a law of general application and having first obtained a ruling by a Tribunal or an order of court;

 

4. Q is a student, renting a room after a verbal agreement and a handshake. After 3 months, Q approaches her landlord, W, and asks him for a written lease, so that she can apply for a temporary job to help fund her studies.
   W refuses, and says that is not how he does things, because he likes to keep things flexible, without paperwork.

 

5(2) A landlord must, if requested thereto by a tenant, reduce the lease to writing.
16. Offences and penalties
Any person who— (a) fails to comply with sections 4 or 5(2) or (9);
will be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine or imprisonment not exceeding two years or to both such fine and such imprisonment.

 

5. R is a waiter and is a tenant renting a bachelor’s flat and pays rent in cash each month. Each month, the landlord, T, just thanks R and leaves with the cash.
   R wants to apply for a small personal loan to buy a second-hand bicycle, and needs a receipt to show how much rent he pays each month. He asks T.
   T does not want to, but when R insists, T scribbles R3500 and “Paid” on a piece of paper.

 

5(3) A lease will be deemed to include terms, enforceable in a competent court, to the effect that—
(a) the landlord must furnish the tenant with a written receipt for all payments received by the landlord from the tenant;
(b) such receipt must be dated and clearly indicate the address, including the street number and further description, if necessary, of a dwelling in respect of which payment is made, and whether payment has been made for rental, arrears, deposit or otherwise, and specify the period for which payment is made: Provided that a Tribunal may, in exceptional cases, and on application by a landlord, exempt the landlord from providing the information contemplated in this paragraph;

 

6. Y moves into a garden flat and pays R6000 deposit. After two years, Y moves out. The landlord, U, says he will maybe pay back the R6000 in 30 days as he has other financial responsibilities at the moment that are more urgent.

 

5(3)(c) the landlord may require a tenant, before moving into the dwelling, to pay a deposit which, at the time, may not exceed an amount equivalent to an amount specified in the agreement or otherwise agreed to between the parties;
(d) the deposit contemplated in paragraph (c) must be invested by the landlord in an interest bearing account with a financial institution and the landlord must subject to paragraph (g) pay the tenant such interest at the rate applicable to such account which may not be less than the rate applicable to a savings account with that financial institution, and the tenant may during the period of the lease request the landlord to provide him or her with written proof in respect of interest accrued on such deposit, and the landlord must provide such proof on request: Provided that where the landlord is a registered estate agent as provided for in the Estate Agency Affairs Act, 1976 (Act No. 112 of 1976 ), the deposit and any interest thereon shall be dealt with in accordance with the provisions of that Act;
(g) on the expiration of the lease, the landlord may apply such deposit and interest towards the payment of all amounts for which the tenant is liable under the said lease, including the reasonable cost of repairing damage to the dwelling during the lease period and the cost of replacing lost keys and the balance of the deposit and interest, if any, must then be refunded to the tenant by the landlord not later than 14 days of restoration of the dwelling to the landlord
(i) should no amounts be due and owing to the landlord in terms of the lease, the deposit, together with the accrued interest in respect thereof, must be refunded by the landlord to the tenant, without any deduction or set-off, within seven days of expiration of the lease;

 

7. On 1 December 2024, a tenant, O, moved into a house. The landlord, A, told O he was in a hurry to go on holiday, and that the place was in great shape.
   They did not inspect the property together and there were already chipped tiles in the kitchen, and the huge living room window had a crack.
   In December 2025, when O moved out, the landlord did a quick look through the house on his own without arranging an inspection with O, and wanted to keep the R15000 deposit for the broken tiles and the cracked window.

 

5(3)(e) the tenant and the landlord must jointly, before the tenant moves into the dwelling, inspect the dwelling to ascertain the existence or not of any defects or damage therein with a view to determining the landlord’s responsibility for rectifying any defects or damage or with a view to registering such defects or damage, as provided for in subsection (7);

(f) at the expiration of the lease the landlord and tenant must arrange a joint inspection of the dwelling at a mutually convenient time to take place within a period of three days prior to such expiration with a view to ascertaining if there was any damage caused to the dwelling during the tenant’s occupation thereof;
(j) failure by the landlord to inspect the dwelling in the presence of the tenant as contemplated in paragraphs (e) or (f) is deemed to be an acknowledgement by the landlord that the dwelling is in a good and proper state of repair, and the landlord will have no further claim against the tenant who must then be refunded, in terms of this subsection, the full deposit plus interest by the landlord;

 

8. S, a tenant moves out, and then she is informed by the landlord, D, that R4500 will be deducted from her deposit to repair a kitchen cupboard’s hinges. S asks for a receipt and invoices to verify the handyman’s fees. D tells her that he does his own work and R4500 is what the labour is worth, and she better be thankful that he did not charge her for the new hinges as well.

 

(5)(3)(h) the relevant receipts which indicate the costs which the landlord incurred, as contemplated in paragraph (g), must be available to the tenant for inspection as proof of such costs incurred by the landlord;
(g) on the expiration of the lease, the landlord may apply such deposit and interest towards the payment of all amounts for which the tenant is liable under the said lease, including the reasonable cost of repairing damage to the dwelling during the lease period and the cost of replacing lost keys and the balance of the deposit and interest, if any, must then be refunded to the tenant by the landlord not later than 14 days of restoration of the dwelling to the landlord;

 

9. During a heated argument between F, the tenant, and G, the landlord, about noise and partying by F, G tells F that he must be out immediately.
   G then opens the outside DB board and shuts off the electricity and he also turns off the water to the apartment. He locks the DB Board and removes the head of the valve that controls the waterflow to the apartment and tells F if he does not want to live dry and in the dark, he can leave.

 

16 Offences and penalties

Any person who—
(hA) unlawfully locks out a tenant or shuts off the utilities to the rental housing property;
will be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine or imprisonment not exceeding two years or to both such fine and such imprisonment

 

10. Z, the landlord, want to use an apartment for his elderly mother. Z hires a private security firm to evict X, the current tenant, if X is not out in 7 days. X protests and says he needs more time to fund a new place and after 7 days, the private security firm removes all X’s furniture and puts it all on the sidewalk.

 

4(3) (3) The tenant’s rights as against the landlord include his or her right not to have—

(c) his or her possessions seized, except in terms of a law of general application and having first obtained a ruling by a Tribunal or an order of court;
(4)(5) The landlord’s rights against the tenant include his or her right to—
(d) on termination of a lease to—
(ii) repossess rental housing property having first obtained an order of court;