There was never any inspection done when I moved in and the exit inspection was also done after I had left. Am I liable to pay damages that were already there when I moved in?
A Property24 reader asks: I rented a house from the 1st of February 2019 and the lease was for a year and was signed through agents. By September I started having financial problems and indicated to the agents that I wanted to terminate my lease due to financial difficulties. The agents then communicated this to the landlord as the lease hadn’t expired yet and mid-October the landlord contacted me and I advised that I would be moving out at the end of November 2019 which was accepted and agreed by him. Now on the 10th December after having moved out on the 30th November the agents sent a long list of damages I am supposed to have made on the property. There was never any inspection done when I moved in and the exit inspection was also done after I had left; no one came to even collect the keys from me. Am I liable to pay damages that were already there when I moved in? There were no official inspections so I cannot prove that the damages were already there, nor can the agents or landlord prove that the damages were caused by me? What do I do now?
Michael Bauer, Managing Director at SAProperties.com responds:
As per the Rental Housing act 50 of 1999 that governs the relationship between landlord and tenant, tenant and a landlord must joint entry and exit inspection. Failure by the landlord to inspect the dwelling in the presence of the tenant is deemed to be an acknowledgement by the landlord that dwelling is in a good and proper state of repair and the landlord must refund the tenants deposit with interest.
Should the tenant fail to make themselves available for the inspection on the landlord’s request, the landlord must inspect the property within 7 days after the expiration of the lease, inform the tenant of damages found if any, that will be deducted from the deposit, and present receipt of such damages on request to the tenant.
Article Courtesy of Lexis Digest.