Residential Guidebook Homeowners Guide 2016 | Page 20

LEGAL What are the Legalities of Evicting your Tenant? Tenant Evictions and Legal Contracts BY MARLON SHEVELEW E victions of tenants in residential properties are unfortunately a necessary evil for landlords. Ironically, tenants are but one of the ‘group’ of unlawful occupiers that rental property attorneys encounter in court and, relatively speaking, are far more accommodating than squatters whom have occupied a residential property without any right in law or in fact, or a property owner who has lost ownership by way of foreclosure but feels the need to remain in the property. The Prevention Of Illegal Eviction and Unlawful Occupation Of Land Act – no. 19 of 1998 (PIE) regulates the residential eviction process. It is the only lawful procedure of ejecting an unlawful occupier from a residential property. What landlords need to realise is that an eviction application can only be launched if the tenant is an unlawful occupier. 18 Residential E-Book 2016 In other words, a tenant will have been obliged to receive notice to remedy a breach; for example, a non-rental payment. Moreover, only 20 days after the date of such demand had passed can a lease be cancelled. A period to voluntarily vacate the premises can then be provided. In the absence of the voluntary vacation an eviction application procedure can be commenced. The Act regulating residential evictions is unaffected by the imminent Rental Housing Amendment Act, save for potential weaponry that the tenant may raise in opposition to the proposed eviction, such as a failure by the landlord to attend to certain maintenance requirements etc. More of a concern, however, is the Consumer Protection Act, a statute that will be covered in future articles. A letter of cancellation irrevocably brings a lease between the landlord and the tenant to a www.reimag.co.za