Read the latest legal news, updates and commentary from the offices of Simon Dippenaar & Associates.
Your lease is not “paperwork”. It’s your future court file. If your lease is vague, outdated, or copied from a friend’s cousin’s landlord, you don’t have a lease. You have a delay. And delays in property disputes cost money fast. Last updated: 28 March 2026 Free download: Residential lease agreement template (PDF) Download here: Residential […]
By Simon Dippenaar • 20 October 2025 Summary Only a court can authorise an eviction in South Africa. Private groups, landlords, managing agents, security companies, or politicians cannot lawfully “evict” anyone. This neutral explainer sets out what the law requires, regardless of politics or immigration status. A recent media report referenced politically charged calls for […]
Judges emphasise that procedural fairness must be upheld Reprinted from groundup.org.za, by Tania Broughton – 2020-09-04 Three appeal judges in the Western Cape provincial division have laid down guidelines on how eviction orders, in domestic violence matters, should be dealt with. Photo: Brian Turner via Flickr (CC BY 2.0) A magistrate ruled that a husband accused of […]
Can a tenant win an eviction? It depends. Usually no, but sometimes they can. When can they? When the landlord has not followed the legal eviction procedure. Can you give examples of this? When the landlord does not properly deliver written notices, otherwise known as eviction letters, to the tenant, before going to court. When the […]
By Eviction Lawyers South Africa Mar 24, 2020 COVID 19, Eviction news, Eviction notice, Evictions Elsewhere in the world legislation is ensuring tenants don’t lose their homes due to COVID 19. As if we didn’t have enough to worry about. COVID 19 is making everyone anxious for their health. Although the vast majority of patients […]
Cape Town – Social housing giant Communicare has dismissed claims that a Rondebosch tenant was unlawfully evicted. Karabo Makgoane, who lived at the Welverdiend complex, claimed that she was unlawfully evicted by Communicare because the organisation was supposed to give her alternative accommodation. “I have been living in the Welverdiend flat since 2017. I was […]
Humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers and Rural Development and Land Reform Deputy Minister Mcebisi Skwatsha brought some relief to nearly 100 destitute people after they were evicted from the farm Klein Akker near Wallacedene in Kraaifontein. They have been living in a temporary place for more than two months, with no food or water […]
The end of a tenancy is not the time to discover your tenant has not been paying the municipal bills or “rates” – property taxes and utility bills like electricity, water and sewerage, etc. At that stage you are faced with the difficult task of trying to recover the money. It is far better to […]
Illegal evictions and fatalities are calling cards of Red Ants At Cape Town eviction lawyers Simon Dippenaar & Associates (SDLAW), we were angered and saddened to learn of recent illegal actions by the Gauteng security company Red Ants. The Red Ants firm specialises in “urban management support services for human settlements”, and was established to […]
Rental arrears in South Africa can expose a landlord to immediate cash-flow pressure, but the right response is not always the same. In some matters, recovery of the arrears is commercially justified. In others, the better strategy is to stop the loss, cancel lawfully if entitled to do so, and focus on regaining possession through […]
How much does it cost to evict a tenant? Eviction is an unpleasant word. It conjures up images of an uncaring landlord putting an unfortunate tenant out on the streets. It’s true that there are cases of unfair evictions. But for the most part, rental housing legislation now provides considerable protection to tenants and prevents […]
PIE does not apply to commercial evictions, but CPA might Legislation introduced in the last few years gives residential tenants a host of rights, and landowners or landlords must follow very strict procedures to evict tenants. However, the same is not true of commercial tenants. In some case the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) may apply, […]
