SAA MAN’S FLAP OVER RENT
Suspended bean counter goes to court to get rest of his deposit from Hype Park homeowner
A CARROL Boyes olive bowl that was used as an ashtray and a damaged Le Creuset casserole dish are part of a legal row over a deposit to rent a R9.3-million house in Hyde Park, Johannesburg.
Suspended SAA chief commercial officer Sylvain Bosc wants his deposit back, but homeowner Yoni Titi says the money is needed to replace or fix everything the Frenchman and his family allegedly broke while living in the mansion.
Bosc paid a R97 500 deposit to rent the house before he and his wife, Fabienne, and their three children — two of school-going age and a toddler — moved in in August 2014.
Titi kept R40 000 of the deposit when the family moved out in March last year.
Bosc has asked the Randburg Magistrate’s Court to compel his former landlady to pay back R37 000.
But in her responding papers, Titi accuses the Bosc family of causing tens of thousands of rands’ damage to the property.
She has included in the damage:
An imported bedside pedestal valued at R7 000; ý A side table valued at R1 450; ý A bathroom wall that cost R10 583 to repair; ý Dining benches worth R3 910; ý Villeroy & Boch cushions worth R3 084; and The R467 Le Creuset dish. Bosc has been suspended on full pay from SAA for the past nine months. Documents submitted to the court show that the cash-strapped national airline has been paying Bosc R50 000 towards his accommodation. SAA insiders said his package was in region of R260 000 a month — which includes fees for his two older children at an exclusive French international school in Johannesburg, and the use of a six-cylinder VW Touareg SUV.
The Frenchman paid R65 000 a month to rent Titi’s home.
In his particulars of claim, Bosc denies causing all the damage, and says Titi was only entitled to R2 903 of the deposit — for damaged crockery, a burnt cushion, a Telkom phone account and to replace a soap dispenser in one bathroom.
Everything else was damaged before he moved in, he claims.
Titi’s property, in sought-after Morsim Road in Hyde Park, is 1 160m² and has five bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, three lounges, a dining area and a pool and patio. It is in an accesscontrolled street near the exclusive Hyde Park Corner shopping centre.
Titi, 35, decided to rent out the property in 2014 after being accepted to study at Georgetown University in the US.
The court papers contain emails and WhatsApp messages between the two which become increasingly acrimonious: in one message Bosc accused Titi of spending the deposit to holiday in the Caribbean and the US.
She dismissed the allegation, and accused her former tenant of living beyond his means.
In one e-mail, Titi wrote: “I am not disturbed by your arrogant messages and e-mails of believing I had spent your deposit on my travels in the USA and Caribbean — what would reduce a professional individual to such personal attacks remains a mystery.”
This week Titi told the Sunday Times: “He is trying to use a legal technicality to escape liability for what he factually knows was damage caused by him and his family. I am, however, confident that justice will prevail.”
Bosc, speaking through his attorneys, Gascoigne Randon & Associates, said he would not comment on the matter as it was in court.
Estate agent Tracey-Lee Savwith age, who works in the high end of the market in Johannesburg, said that having detailed documentation as part of the contract helped to prevent disputes.
“Everything needs to be documented, with both parties signing the document on inception, and there should be inspections involving both upon termination. If the property is furnished, one needs to almost take an inventory of each and every item and take pictures to show there are no cracks in windows and on walls,” she said.
Bosc was suspended from SAA in November last year for allegedly costing the troubled parastatal millions of rands in a deal to launch a route to Abu Dhabi. SAA spokesman Tlali Tlali said details of the process were confidential. “The matter has not reached finality, as parties are still exploring options to finalise the matter.” — Additional reporting by Stephan Hofstatter
She . . . accused her former tenant of living beyond his means