http://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/news/tenants-protest-against-eviction-1.1189139

Tenants protest against eviction

Desperate evicted tenants of Valley View housing complex in Hillary appealed to their landlord’s conscience on Tuesday.

This was during their demonstration outside the landlord’s offices on the Jan Smuts Highway under heavy police presence and private security.

The tenants were evicted from the partly goverment-funded housing early this month for unpaid rent, following protracted court battle with landlord Sohco, a non-profit company. The tenants claim they were wrongly evicted as the rental agreed on was not the same as the one that appeared on their leases.

“Most tenants who were evicted are single parents and most are women. When they evicted us, some of our children had already started writing exams. When they arrived at the flat and saw all those cops with guns, some of them just cried,” said one of the tenants, Nomfundo Mdluli.

She said the leases they had signed were blank, with no amount written in the space where the rental should have been. “After a month living in the flats, we had to demand our leases back and when we got these back, the rent price had been filled in ink. This was not the R850 that was agreed upon initially,” she said.

Mdluli said that after three months, the rent was increased and the tenants then decided to stop paying the rent to Sohco and deposit the R850 into a trust account until Sohco was able to explain the increase to them.

“When we questioned the blank leases we were signing, we were told that if we don’t want houses, we should step aside and let those who wanted them sign the leases,” she said.

“I was one of the people who knew nothing about the eviction… I got a phone call from my neighbours telling me that my stuff was being moved out of my place and that they were all sent SMSes about the eviction,” said Mdluli.

However, Sohco chief executive Heather Maxwell denied the allegations about the blank leases, saying that they were not even sure that the tenants who were demonstrating were those who had been evicted.

“Prior to anyone taking occupation, formal written leases stating the value of rentals due were signed,” she said.

Maxwell said a deposit and the first month’s rental had been paid in advance by everyone before occupation. Most tenants had paid rent for at least six months before being influenced to stop doing so.

“Formal written notice was delivered by the sheriff of the court to the evicted tenants,” she said.

Maxwell said Sohco had not been aware of the trust that the tenants were referring to until the company took the matter to court. She said the eviction was tested at the high court with appeal attempts at the Supreme Court, and the evictions were upheld.