When it comes to the management of rental properties, there is one thing that often causes disputes, and that is how a tenant’s deposit has been handled, what is due to be refunded at the end of the lease period, and what constitutes a failure to refund the said deposit.
Landlords and rental agents acting on behalf of the landlord should remember that they need to refer to the Rental Housing Act, and should stick to the provisions therein, says Sunell Afrika, rentals manager at property company, SAProperty.com.
According to Afrika, this section of the RHA states:
- 5 (c) The landlord may require a tenant before moving into the dwelling, to pay a deposit.
- 5(d) the deposit contemplated in paragraph (c) must be invested in an interest-bearing account with a financial institution that may not be less than the rate applicable to a savings account with that financial institution. And the landlord must subject to paragraph (g) pay the tenant interest at the rate applicable to such account which may not be less than the rate applicable to a savings account with a financial institution and the tenant may during the period of the lease request the landlord to provide him or her with written proof, in respect of interest accrued on such deposit, and the landlord must provide such proof on request.
- 5(e) the tenant and the landlord must jointly, before the tenant moves into the dwelling, inspect the dwelling to ascertain the existence or not of any defects or damage therein with a view to determining the landlord’s responsibility for rectifying any defects or damage or with a view to registering such defects or damage.
- 5(f) at the expiration of the lease the landlord and tenant must arrange a joint inspection of dwelling at a mutually convenient time to take place within a period of three days prior to such expiration to ascertain if there was any damage caused to the dwelling during the tenant’s occupation.
- 5(g) on expiration of the lease the landlord may apply such deposit and interest towards the payments of all amounts for which the tenant is liable under the said lease. Balance of the deposit and interest must be refunded to the tenant by the landlord not later than 14 days of restoration of the dwelling to the landlord.
- 5(h) the relevant receipts which indicate the costs which the landlord incurred, must be available to the tenant for inspection as proof of such costs incurred by the landlord.
Finally
Every tenant accepts that he or she will pay a deposit before taking occupation of a rental property, and this amount varies from the equivalent of one month’s rent to three - although the majority ask for two months’ rent as a deposit.
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