Lease Agreements

An oral lease is valid in our law - and if the tenant asks for it in writing, the landlord must put it in writing; the Act says so. But validity was never the point. When the relationship sours, the oral lease becomes a contest of memories about rent, escalation, notice and who fixes what - and the party who cannot prove the term loses it. The law also reads a set of compulsory terms into every residential lease whether the parties wrote them down or not, so an unwritten lease does not even spare you the statute.

A properly drafted lease costs a fraction of one month's rent and one dispute pays for it many times over. We draft them within a day to a week, residential and commercial, with every statutory requirement built in.

More than most landlords and tenants suspect. Whether or not the document says so, the Act deems every residential lease to include enforceable terms: the landlord must issue dated, itemised receipts for every payment; the deposit must be handled the way the next answer describes; the parties must inspect the dwelling together before the tenant moves in, and again in the last three days of the lease. These are not suggestions - they decide deposit fights, and the deemed terms bite the party who ignored them.

A good lease does not fight the Act; it is drafted around it - and then adds what the Act does not provide: escalation, maintenance responsibilities, house rules, breach procedure, and the practical machinery for the day something goes wrong.

Strict ones, and they cut both ways. The deposit must be invested in an interest-bearing account, the interest belongs to the tenant at no less than the bank's savings rate, and the tenant may demand written proof of it at any time. At the end of the lease the landlord may deduct what the lease makes the tenant liable for - damage, lost keys - but only with receipts available for the tenant's inspection. If nothing is owed, deposit plus interest must be refunded within seven days of expiry; where there are deductions, the balance within fourteen days of the dwelling being restored.

And the trap that decides most deposit disputes: if the landlord fails to hold the joint inspections, the Act deems the landlord to have accepted the dwelling in good repair - and the full deposit must come back. Landlords lose deposits not because tenants were innocent, but because inspections never happened.

Yes, it applies to leases - this is one of the newest compulsory pieces of the puzzle, and it catches people daily. Since 2022 the Property Practitioners Act provides that where an estate agent holds the mandate, the landlord must complete and sign a prescribed disclosure form on the condition and defects of the property before the agent may accept the mandate at all; a copy must be given to a prospective tenant before an offer is made; and the completed form, signed by all parties, must be attached to the lease as an integral part of it. If no form is attached, the Act reads the lease as if no defects were disclosed at all - a default that can cost either side dearly, and expose the agent besides.

A purely private lease with no agent falls outside the section - but the wisdom does not. Our leases build a property-condition disclosure and inspection annexure in as standard, agent or no agent, because the disclosure that prevents the dispute is worth ten clauses that win it.

Often yes - and this surprises landlords every time. Where the Consumer Protection Act applies to the lease - broadly, where the landlord lets property in the ordinary course of business and the tenant is a private person - the tenant may cancel a fixed-term lease at any time on 20 business days' written notice, whatever the contract says. The landlord's protection is a reasonable cancellation penalty, and amounts owing to date remain payable. The same Act caps fixed terms at 24 months unless a longer term is expressly agreed and demonstrably to the tenant's benefit, requires the landlord to give notice of the expiry date well in advance, and continues the lease month to month after expiry unless the tenant renews or ends it.

Between juristic persons - company to company - the section does not apply at all, which is one of several reasons a commercial lease is a different document. A lease drafted without knowing which regime governs it is a lease drafted wrong.

The lease survives. Our law applies an old and firm rule - huur gaat voor koop, the lease goes before the sale - so the buyer steps into the seller's shoes as landlord, and the tenant's rights carry on as before. A landlord selling, a buyer purchasing an occupied property, and a tenant watching a for-sale board go up all need the same thing: to know exactly what the lease says, because everyone is bound by it.

Nearly everything that matters. The Rental Housing Act protects dwellings, not shops and offices; between juristic persons the Consumer Protection Act's cancellation rights fall away; and the parties are largely free to build the deal they actually struck - escalation clauses, renewal options, turnover provisions, reinstatement obligations, and personal suretyship by the directors behind the tenant company, which is the clause that decides whether a judgment is worth anything.

That freedom is precisely the danger: a commercial lease is only as good as its drafting, because there is far less statute underneath to catch anyone who falls. We draft and review both sides of them.

Move quickly, in two steps. First, a letter of demand - on an attorney's letterhead it resolves more arrears than most people expect, because it signals that the next step is real. Second, where the demand does not do it: the rent interdict summons, one of the oldest weapons in the Magistrates' Courts Act. The summons claims the arrears and carries a built-in court notice prohibiting the removal of the furniture and effects from the premises - the very goods over which the law gives the landlord security for unpaid rent - and the sheriff inventories them on service. The tenant who was quietly planning to load a bakkie on Saturday now cannot lawfully move a stick of furniture until the court has spoken.

The arrears, the interdict and the attachment of the goods are our work - but be clear on one thing: this is separate work from the drafting of your lease, instructed on its own and with the fee discussed at the consultation before we take the first step. Where cancellation and eviction become necessary, that is its own court process with its own rules, and we will tell you plainly at the consultation what it involves.

Quoted at the consultation - a straightforward residential lease and a multi-clause commercial lease are different pieces of work, and you will know the figure before we begin. The quote covers the drafting of the lease. Recovering arrear rental - the demand and the rent interdict summons - is separate work, instructed and priced on its own when it arises, never an included service and never a hidden extra. Measured against one month of unpaid rent or one deposit dispute, a properly drafted lease is still the cheapest insurance a landlord buys.

A day to a week, from instructions to a signed lease - residential or commercial - with every statutory requirement built in. If a tenant is due to move in urgently, say so when you phone.

We would prefer it. A great deal is lost over email, and these are matters where sitting across a desk from one another makes a real difference. Where the distance genuinely makes that impractical, we consult by video call instead.

No. We advise in consultation. A message is the right way to arrange an appointment, but not the right way to receive advice on something this consequential.

Whatever paperwork you have - statements, letters of demand, summonses, court papers. If you have nothing, come anyway. It is better to start the conversation than to delay it until the file is tidy.

Telephone 087 133 3595, or send the short form on this site. We will contact you to arrange a date and time.