Landlord locks ‘decent’ tenants out in the cold

WE have been renting a twobedroom unit at the William in Fourways. The landlord is a director of Balwin Properties and the agents work for the company.

We have been renting the unit for the past 36 months and have never skipped a month’s rent. We have a prepaid electricity meter in the unit.

On commencement of the first, 18-month lease, we stipulated that we are on a commission basis only and requested that we be given a grace period until the seventh of each month. At times the commission only comes in between the 5th and the 10th of the month but we always paid rent.

In the three years, we have only been late with payment six times, yet each time they’ve cut our prepaid electricity and Balwin and the “landlord”, who apparently gives them the instruction, refuses to switch it on until we have made payment.

Once we had to live for 14 days with no electricity in the middle of winter, taking icecold baths, etc.

We had to throw away our frozen foodstuff and refrigerator foods. They also charged us an extra R1 000 if we paid late.

Recently, when we arrived home after work, we were unable to enter the unit as the landlord had ordered the locks to be changed. My wife had chronic medication in the apartment which she needed; we did not have warm clothes or anything.

We had to drive to a family member to ask them to put us up for the night.

They seem to have an attitude that they are above the law and can do as they please.

We are decent people who have just gone through some difficulties. Wally Goossens

Georgie: Inasmuch as the tenant is required to pay rent on time, as per the contract, the landlord is simply not allowed to disconnect services or lock tenants out of the property. It’s against the law. Balwin refused to comment on the matter, saying it’s a private rental but the landlord is a company director – a representative of the company – and his staff are involved. I gave them ample time to respond to my queries, but they refused.