fredrick peterson

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http://iafrica.com/news/sa/115236.htm
JOHANNESBURG
Illegal tenants fuss surprises police
Posted Wed, 29 Sep 2004

The illegal occupation of empty buildings in central Johannesburg is
commonplace but the hands of police are tied, a spokesperson said on
Wednesday.

"In the past two months we have supervised the eviction of illegal tenants
in three of four buildings," said Inspector Enoch Masehla from Jeppestown
police station. And this was only in the Jeppe area.

Masehla was surprised at "fuss" made by an owner upon discovering her
building had been "hijacked" and was inhabited by more than 20 people, who
were all paying money to someone else to live there.

'Happens all the time'

"It happens all the time; there is a procedure she must follow," he said.

In these cases the owner of the building went to the sheriff of the court to
get an eviction order, Masehla said. The residents were then evicted by the
sheriff's "red ant" security guards.

Masehla said the owner could not expect the police to act immediately on a
complaint.

"You have to follow the correct channel. As police we cannot act."

Situation 'ludicrous'

However, Sean Borrill, property agent for the owners, said the situation was
"ludicrous".

He said an eviction order could cost anything from R15 000 to R60 000.

"What happens if you don't have that sort of money lying in the bank?

"If you go on holiday and someone moves into your house, you can't have them
evicted. Where does that leave the property owner?"

Borrill said his client had no option but to approach the courts and pay the
money.

"If we don't go through the proper channels, we could end up being arrested.
It is ludicrous."

Police 'doing everything they can'

Although Borrill felt the police were doing nothing, Masehla said they had
"done everything they could".

In this instance the people were paying rent — even if it was not to the
real owner of the property. "We have to be very careful," he said.

Borrill said the impostor landlords had not tried to hide and provided him
with names and identity documents.

However, Masehla could not say what these pseudo-landlords would be charged
with if police arrested them — a case of housebreaking was the only charge
police were investigating.

'Huge health risk'

City spokesperson Roopa Singh said turning office blocks into residences
posed huge health and safety risks.

She agreed with Masehla that it happened very often in the inner city.

"There are no fire extinguishes, or bathrooms, or running water. We have had
an instance where our inspectors discovered a basement filled with one and a
half meters of raw sewage."

However, when it came to public health and safety, one also had to go
through the courts before evicting people, said Singh.

She said it was possible to file an urgent application at the High Court.

Huge electricity and water bills

Another worry of Borrill's was the huge electricity and water bills that the
illegal tenants were racking up.

He said City Power had cut the power to the building, but the residents
seemed to have reconnected it illegally.

He believed the electricity bill had now reached R30 000, and the water bill
was about R20 000.

City Power's Saul Masolo said the utility usually did not like to intervene
between landlords and tenants by cutting off power at the landlord's
request.

However, if, as in this instance, the owners could prove the people were
there illegally, it would cut off the power.

Sapa

Comment:

I'd be cutting the power and water off to that building without the help of
the useless municipality.

drenai_rule

I can bet you somebody's on the take....

Carla