48 HOUSES: TENANTS DEFY ACC

A BITTER row has erupted over the 51 “mysterious houses”.

Tenants have refused to pay backdated rentals demanded by the ACC, which has now threatened to evict them but the owners of the flats who have claimed the property say the ACC has no legal right to demand rentals let alone to evict the tenants.

The acting ACC Director-General Ms Rosemary Nkonde-Khuzwayo who has been in dialogue with the tenants has now written warning them of eviction if they failed to sign new tenancy agreements thereby agreeing to pay new backdated rentals.

But the lawyer representing the claimants of the property Mr. Hobday Kabwe has stated that the (ACC) had no legal basis on which to evict tenants from the 51 houses because the issue of ownership had not yet been resolved.

Sometime in June this year, the ACC visited the tenants and spoke to them individually and collected tenancy details.

The tenants then approached the ACC for a new tenancy agreement but they were not happy with some clauses contained, such as increasing and backdating rentals.

As a result of the standoff, rentals for August and September were not paid as tenants wanted the clauses removed. Now, ACC has given tenants one week in which to pay or vacate the premises.

In a letter to the tenants, Ms Khuzwayo has stated that as of April 2019 the ownership of the flats vested into the state and therefore due rentals were to be paid to the ACC.” We informed you immediately the forfeiture was done. “she said in the letter.

Non signing of the new tenancy agreement, she said, did not absolve them from paying rentals “as you are benefitting by living in the said flats.”

“If you are not satisfied with the tenancy agreement and are not willing to sign then you must accordingly vacate; and further you are required to settle in full rental arrears from April 2019 to date, failure to do so, legal proceedings will be instituted without further recourse to you.”

“At the expiry of one week from today, we shall evict anyone who would have not signed the tenancy agreement without further notification. she warned.

However, Mr. Kabwe, who is a lawyer of one of the claimants of the “ghost” houses, has warned the ACC against evicting any tenants because such a decision had no legal backing and was bound to boomerang on them.

He said any action to evict the tenant remained null and void in the absence of any court process and that as long as the issue of ownership remained unresolved, any action by the commission would have no legal basis.