In yet another complaint the Laudium Sun has received from a Laudium tenant, this time concerning an alleged illegal action taken by the landlord, the tenant and her family remain upset with the manner in which they have been treated by both their landlord and the police.
The tenant, a Zimbabwean national, called at the Laudium Sun offices this past Monday (October 7) complaining that her landlord had illegally evicted her together with her family from the garage of a house on Jet Str, which was rented to them as a room to stay in. The tenant, Sally Moyo who has been living with her family in the makeshift room since last year, claimed that the landlord, Sameer Kharbai, came during the late night of Sunday evening to their room and illegally and forcefully removed them without even giving them a chance to remove all their goods or giving them proper notice. Sally (43) added, “My husband and I, together with our 3 kids are renting a room at a home on Jet Street near the park. We have been living there since June last year. The problem started when the landlord all of a sudden came to our room, which was originally a garage, last week Thursday and told us that we should look for another place. We don’t know why he was behaving this way. He was acting very strangely and started to break the room’s garage door, which we were renting. We don’t know why he was behaving this way because we have been paying him rent every month. He just told us that we should pack our stuff and leave his house. We tried to talk to him and explained to him that he should at least give us a month’s notice to look for another place, but he refused to understand and left. Then on Sunday in the middle of the night, he came to the room while we were sleeping and forcefully opened the garage door and chased us out of the room. We had nowhere to go, so we decided to go to the police station to get help as we knew what the landlord did was not legal. But, to our disappointment, the police told us that they could not act against the landlord as it was a civil matter and advised us to look for another room. We had no choice but to sleep at the police station at that late part of the night. Now we are searching for another room which we hope to find soon, so that my children can go back to school. Fortunately my friend has agreed to let us stay by her for a few days until we find another room. Now my children are no longer attending school because of this situation. The landlord did not even allow us to take all our goods the following day. He has taken our TV and two radios, telling us that we owe him rental so he cannot give back all our things, but we don’t owe him rent. Our landlord is taking advantage of us because he knows we are mourning the death of my mother who has passed away recently. Two of our children are attending preschool and our one child is attending Himalaya Secondary School. This is very difficult for my family and I as on the one side we don’t have a home and on the other side we are still mourning the death of my mother. This illegal eviction has added extra trauma into our lives.” When the Laudium Sun contacted the owner of the house, Sameer Kharbai, as to the allegations made by Sally, Sameer said, “I evicted the tenants because they were not paying me rent and they wanted to stay for free.”
*The Jet Str, Laudium property where Sally Moyo and her family were renting the garage and using it as a room.*
The Laudium SAPS Spokesperson, Simon Chokoe was not available for comment but he normally refuses to comment on incidents of crime. However, a police officer who was in the charge office when the Laudium Sun visited the Station told the reporter that evicting a tenant without a court order is a criminal offense and he cannot understand why the police did not act, adding, “I was not on duty when this illegal eviction took place. If I was, I would have arrested the landlord as he acted illegally and it is a criminal offense.”
*Zimbabwean national, Sally Moyo, alleged that her landlord forcefully evicted them in the middle of the night.*
*Landlord and owner of the Jet Str house, Sameer Kharbai, told the Laudium Sun that he evicted the tenants because they were not paying rent.*