Couple Ordered To Pay Landlord R440k After Years of Freeloading
- The court ordered the Gauteng couple to repay a large sum after staying on a Randburg property for years without honouring the rental terms
- The landlord relied on the Rental Housing Act to prove that the old lease conditions still applied, while the couple’s claim of an oral agreement fell short
- The judgment confirmed the arrears and damages owed, closing off a long-running housing dispute that stretched far beyond the original lease period
- Briefly News also spoke to Themba, a real estate marketplace owner and property manager, who said cases like this highlight how quickly rental issues can spiral when communication breaks down
Africans followed the case closely as it exposed the complications of long-term rental disputes and how legal gaps can turn a simple agreement into years of tension.
Source: UGC
According to IOL, a long-running housing dispute came to a head when a Gauteng couple was ordered to pay their landlord more than R440,000 after years of staying in a Malanshof property in Randburg without paying rent. The ruling was handed down by the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg, which dealt with the matter involving Albertina Tshisikule and Tshipuliso Barnabas Tshisikule, who had lived on the property since July 2009. Their written lease agreements had been renewed several times until the final renewal ended in July 2016, yet they continued living there with the landlord’s tacit consent. When the landlord eventually cancelled the arrangement in May 2022 due to non-payment, the couple stayed on until the end of October 2023, which ultimately led to the legal action and the financial order that followed.
The landlord argued that even though the written lease was not renewed after 2016, their occupation still fell under Section 5(5) of the Rental Housing Act, meaning their stay automatically turned into a periodic lease with the same terms as before. He explained that the couple owed more than R130,000 in unpaid rent and over R310,000 in holding-over damages because they remained on the property after the lease was cancelled. While the couple tried to dispute this by claiming there was no contract in place and insisting that an oral agreement from 2021 allowed them to live rent-free, the court found these claims lacked detail and didn’t meet the legal requirements needed to prove such an arrangement.
Landlord wins legal fight after years of unpaid occupation
The judge noted that if the landlord had genuinely agreed to let them stay without paying, he would not have continued filing for eviction or pursued the matter as far as he did. The court found that the couple’s defence did not meet the threshold for opposing summary judgment, while the landlord successfully proved the arrears and damages owed on paper. As a result, they were ordered to pay the full amount with two per cent interest calculated from October 2023 until the debt is settled, bringing a long and tense housing standoff to an official close.
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People have been wondering for some time how this long-running housing battle would eventually play out, especially because it stretched over so many years and involved repeated attempts to sort out the lease situation. The case raised plenty of discussion around how rental laws apply when tenants remain on a property for extended periods and how complicated things can become when payments stop. It also highlighted the pressure landlords face when trying to enforce agreements, particularly in busy areas like Randburg, where rental disputes can drag on and become costly for everyone involved.
Themba explained to Briefly News that for landlords, unpaid rent isn’t just a loss, and also added that most disputes start small, like a missed payment or unclear communication, before escalating into legal battles that could have been avoided. He said:
“As a landlord, I think about how damaging it is for both parties. For a landlord, unpaid rent affects the ability to maintain the property, pay rates, utilities or even cover the bond cost. It's not just lost income; it directly impacts the sustainability of the property. I often think about how these situations start as a minor thing, missed payment here and there, poor communication and it quickly escalates into a legal battle. A lot of these cases could be avoided with clear agreements and quicker intervention.”
Themba added that while rental disputes are common, it’s rare for tenants to stay without paying for an entire year. He said most issues stem from poor screening and unclear agreements. He added:
“In my experience, rental disputes do happen, but not to the extent where a tenant goes a whole year without paying. Most tenants communicate when they're facing difficulties, and if not resolved within a month or two, they move out or back home. Most disputes stem from not doing proper screening, many issues start from mismatched expectations, informal agreements and failing to follow lease agreements consistently. I'd say these disputes happen quite often, but with proper processes like screening and background checks, these could be reduced drastically.”
Source: UGC
3 Other Briefly News stories related to landlords
- A young woman decided to report her landlord to the South African Revenue Service (SARS) when he did not give her the R8 000 rental deposit.
- A guy on TikTok helped Capetonians break their silence about their ridiculously high rent on shady properties and dodgy landlords.
- A landlord was unimpressed with a tenant who left her property in a bad state, and she shared an image on social media.
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Source: Briefly News
