Letting agent saves the day for happy client

Watch this video to see how Annemarie Stander, a rental agent at Terblanche Properties in the Garden Route, assisted a client in urgent need of a rental property.

Read all about it…

The TTPS Newsletter

One cannot open a newspaper anymore without some “expert” giving his two cents on the property market, it seems. Prices are going up, prices are going down, it’s the right time to buy, it’s the wrong time to buy, get in, get out, this area, that area…

It can be quite confusing. To help you make sense of it, our monthly electronic newsletter will provide you with the correct information when you need it. It is short, to the point and will help you to stay abreast of the latest developments in the property market. This is invaluable when you are looking to sell or let your property, or if you are looking to buy or rent property.

We respect your privacy and will never sell, share or disclose your email address. For more information about your privacy, check out our website.

So, if you want to impress people with your property knowledge or take charge of your property affairs, click here to subscribe!

Rental market looking stable

Rental payments must be managed

First quarter 2011 results released by TPN shows that 81% of tenants are in good standing with their rental payments. A tenant is in good standing when the tenant pays the full amount of the rental either on time or a few days late. Comparatively speaking, tenants are paying better in 2011 Q1 than the same period last year when only 78% of tenants were in good standing.

While it may be too soon to draw major conclusions from the data, it does seem as if tenants have learnt to budget better. The stable inflation rate environment and low interest rates may also be playing a role. South Africans have had to tighten their belts, and it seems we have done so.

The rental bracket between R3000 per month to R7000 per month still proves to have the best paying tenants with a full 84 of them in good standing. The bracket between R7000 and R12 000 follows closely with 82% of tenants in good standing. Tenants in the categories below R3000 and above R12 000 per month have further deteriorated to 75% and 74% respectively. Tenants in the Western and Eastern Cape continue to pay better than those in Kwazulu Natal and Gauteng.

We have always felt that the choice of letting agency is just as important as the choice of tenant. Make sure that you deal with a company with a proven track record and a valid fidelity fund certificate. As one of the leading letting agencies in the Garden Route, it is great to know that tenants placed by Terblanche Total Property Solutions are paying far better than the national averages. More than 98% of tenants placed by us are currently in good standing.

Wouldn’t you like to have those kind of statistics in your favour?

The state of the SA rental market – 3rd Quarter 2010

The Tenant Profile Network (TPN) recently released their report on the state of the South African rental market as at the end of the 3rd quarter of 2010. The report shows that tenants are generally still trying to settle their household debt and to bring household expenses under control. Tenants who paid on time increased marginally to 68%, but those who paid late declined to 13%. Tenants who only made partial payments increased to 9% and 10% of tenants made no payment at all.

Tenants in the bracket from R3000 to R7000 per month were the best payers. Those in the brackets below R3000 and above R12 000 continued to show weak payment performance with only 55% in the above R12000 bracket paying on time.

Tenants in the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape continued to make their landlords happier than their counterparts in Gauteng or Kwa-Zulu Natal. The Western Cape in particular delivered the lowest percentage of non-paying tenants in South Africa at 6%.

Historically, the December and especially the January rental payment trends decline significantly due to extraordinary holiday expenses. We encourage landlords to make sure they or their property managers act swiftly to limit bad debts.

If you’re looking for a professional property manager, e-mail us today for an obligation-free quote or check out our website for more information.

The link to the TPN Rental Payment Monitor 3rd Quarter 2010 is here.

Renting 101

Kabous le Roux authored a good article on the basics of renting. We recommend all would-be tenants and landlords to educate themselves on the basics of property letting to ensure they know their respective rights and obligations.

A good agent will be able to provide indispensable advice and assistance in this regard. The agent should assist both landlord and owner with all the legal, practical and financial matters that are relevant to a lease agreement. This includes everything from the marketing of the property, showing the property to prospective tenants, doing the necessary credit and reference checks on a prospective tenant, getting a deposit from the tenant, getting the landlord and tenant to conclude a fair lease agreement, doing the necessary inspections, looking after property, taking care of tenants’ requests, collecting the rent etc. More than ever, it’s important to deal with professional and reputable agents.

The article can be see here.

Another piece of the Pie (Act)

Apologies for the late blog post this week. As I’m writing this, I am sitting in my office on this sunny Sunday morning here in Mossel Bay. We were driven from our offices this week due to building and renovations work. I am not complaning – at a time when many smaller real estate companies are closing, we’re actually renovating and expanding.

A few months ago I posted a blog entry about the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act (Pie) and planned amendements thereto that were being tabled before Parliament. Some of these amendments have now become available for comment. It seems that it brings – as always – a mix of good news and bad news for landlords. The article below were first posted on Property 24 and looks at these amendments in more detail.

“Amendments to the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land (Pie) Act now tabled in parliament will bring relief to tenants, sectional title owners and landlords. This is according to Andrew Schaefer, CEO of national rental agents Trafalgar.

Its most dramatic provisions are to criminalise the hijacking of property rentals – common in the inner city and “constructive eviction” by landlords. It also corrects an unintended appeal court judgement seven years ago that included tenants in the protection of land invaders by the Pie Act.

“Landlords are unhappy because they say the terms of the proposed amendment could see them jailed if their tenant electricity was cut off for any reason,” says Schaefer. “Yet it doesn’t criminalise tenants refusing to pay rent.

“I think some of the terms of the bill now in Parliament might be softened. But landlords should start getting used to the idea that their relationship with the occupants of their residential properties is as much social as economic.

“I believe government is sincere in wanting to balance the rights of tenants with its reliance on private enterprise to provide large scale rental housing that it can’t afford to do itself,” add Schaefer, citing the current Rental Housing Act. “Amendments to that also include constructive eviction – that is making tenants life so miserable they are forced to leave — as a criminal act.
It will definitely curtail new rental development in its current form, he says, “just as the hijacking of flats in various ways has been a major cause of the rental fabric in Johannesburg CBD deteriorating so badly.” People have moved into buildings claiming that landlord or managing agents are corrupt and diverting rents to themselves. Landlords have been unable to pay for their electricity and water and the tenants have ultimately suffered the most.

Section 2 of the act will now be amended to make it easier to evict building tenants and homeowners who default on their mortgage loans. But although landlords will be freed from the Pie Act they must still go through procedures that will prevent rapid evictions, including getting a court order and giving 10 days’ notice of the court date. The constitution prohibits evictions without a court order.

Changes to section 3 criminalises people who charge rent or get money from tenants or sectional title owners for land or buildings without the consent of landlords or bodies corporate. They face up to two years in prison and the seizure of their assets.

Until now police have refused to act against the hijackers. They usually claim to be acting for a fictitious political grouping sent to take over the building because, they say, that the landlord is corrupt. Rents or levies illegally collected are then diverted to a bank account.

Police say this is a civil matter. Now many of Johannesburg’s 1 000 dilapidated inner-city buildings will be freed for regeneration. Authorities will also be able to put more pressure on the neglectful owners of remaining buildings.Section 3 criminalises constructive eviction, defined as depriving tenants of services or facilities “to induce a person to vacate or return land or buildings”. If they are accused of this, landlords also face criminal charges.”

Can you legally evict non-paying tenants?

The Prevention of the Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act of 1998 (the Act) was enacted to prohibit unlawful evictions. Unfortunately, the Act was not clear on whether an “unlawful occupier” refers only to persons who unlawfully took possession of land (squatters) or whether it also includes those who once had lawful possession but whose possession subsequently became unlawful – such as tenants or previous land owners who fail to comply with their contractual obligations. This obviously gave rise to a number of problems for landlords who wanted to evict non-paying tenants or previous owners who refused to move out after the sale.

A landmark decision of the Supreme Court of Appeal in 2002 brought clarity to this issue by leading to some much needed legislative changes. In the Ndlovu matter, although the tenant’s lease had been terminated lawfully, he had refused to vacate the property. In another court case, the Bekker matter, a mortgage bond had been called up, the property sold in execution and transferred. However, the former owner had refused to vacate the property.

The court’s decision, by holding that the same statutory limitations which existed on the right to evict squatters from vacant land also applied to evictions of tenants and mortgagors in urban areas, restricted the common law rights that owners of residential property have traditionally had to evict unlawful tenants of urban lease agreements.

After this judgment, the procedure for eviction has become more time-consuming, expensive and complicated as landlords had to then comply with the Act’s numerous procedural and substantive requirements. Clearly, the process favours the defaulting tenants. This can result in a lengthy court process that delays the eviction of the non-paying tenant.

Significantly, the Legislature has proposed numerous amendments to the Act. An Amendment Bill was published for final public comment at the beginning of 2007. The Amendment Bill envisages that the Act does not apply to someone who occupied land as a previous tenant or as the previous owner of land and who continues to occupy the land despite the fact that the tenancy has been validly terminated or the person is no longer the owner of the land.

Although it has taken the Legislature a number of years to rectify this position since Bekker and Ndlovu matters were handed down, relief for landlords is in sight. We look forward to the finalisation of the provisions of the Amendment Bill in the next couple of months.

Talk to one of the experts at Terblanche Thomas for advice on this and other matters. We have a qualified attorney among the ranks of our directors so we can steer you through the sometimes murky waters of evictions.