Tenant Eviction Process (The Bugle)

With the rental market booming in Ballito, and the limited supply driving up the price, more and more property investors are being encouraged to buy-to-let. The national average of buying to let as a percentage of all property sales remains at 8%, which is historically low, but this is set to change over the next few years. For a Landlord one of the most important things to know is the legal eviction process. For property owners who elect to self manage their properties, without the assistance of a professional rental agency, many pitfalls can present themselves. Without a subscription to a national credit bureau, which records the date of every rental payment made by the tenant and updates their credit profile on a monthly basis with this information, property owners do not have the tools to provide sufficient leverage to ensure compliant rental payment behaviour. Our subscription to Tenant Profile Network provides this and is extremely effective in ensuring that our managed leases are all up to date. Should you however find yourself in a situation where eviction of a tenant is necessary then the following steps are required:

1. Place the tenant on terms according to the lease agreement by issuing a letter of demand and time frame for compliance or cancellation of the lease.
2. Once the lease is terminated through this initial process the notice of eviction can be served. A notice of eviction can be served by the Sheriff of the Court, by hand at the premises, which should always be chosen as the tenant’s domicilium in the lease agreement, or by means of registered post. At this point a negotiated settlement in terms of payments and departure time frames should be reached. It would be an extremely foolish tenant that tries to remain in residence after this stage.
3. The next step is the court application for eviction, served by the Sheriff on the occupant and on the relevant municipality. Court appearance dates are set and dates by which the occupant must file their opposing court papers, if they intend to oppose the eviction application, are confirmed. The occupant has to receive the court application papers at least 14 days before the court date.
4. The court appearance and application hearing follows with oral and written legal arguments presented by both parties.  Assuming the applicant is successful the Court will then through a Court Order provide the occupant sufficient time to vacate – ordinarily up to 1 month.
5. Should the tenant not abide by the Court Order to vacate within the period stipulated the Sheriff will then be authorized to forcefully remove the occupants, with the assistance of the police if required. The Sheriff could take up to 3 weeks to execute the eviction order.

The downside to the Landlord is the time frame the above process can take, which can be 2 - 3 months. What this means is that the standard 1 month damages deposit held as security on most leases is no longer good enough. We can expect most property owners to move towards 2 – 3 month deposits being insisted on. This places a higher cost on tenants and is the natural market response to legislation, which lengthens the process for a legal eviction.

(Author: Andreas Wassenaar, published in The Bugle, 7th August 2013)