Minister Welcomes New Rental Housing Tribunal Members

On Thursday, 18 May 2017, Western Cape Human Settlements Minister Bonginkosi Madikizela welcomed the new Rental Housing Tribunal members to the Department. The new tribunal board members include Ms Trudie Broekmann, Mr Noel Van Stade, Ms Sibongile Morara and Mr Andre du Plessis.  The current Chairperson, Mr Thomas Cloete, has served on the tribunal board since 2016. 

“I would like to welcome you to the Rental Housing Tribunal and thank you for agreeing to be part of this board that serves people with very emotional rental issues. I look forward to working with you and having more regular meetings regarding rental disputes and helping both landlords and tenants in this province” said Minister Madikizela.

The Rental Housing Tribunal’s main function is to settle disputes between tenants and landlords in terms of the Rental Housing Act. The tribunal receives, investigates and makes rulings on complaints regarding unfair rental housing practices. The Western Cape Rental Housing Tribunal (RHT) dealt with over 3000 registered cases in the last year and deals with over 500 queries on a monthly basis. Once a complaint is lodged, the tribunal has a total of ninety (90) days within which to settle disputes.

Disputes dealt with by the RHT include: deposits; lease agreement disputes (verbal and written); the rights and duties of landlords and tenants; non-payment of rental; damage to property; eviction.  The RHT works to resolve matters initially by facilitation and mediation. Should this not be sufficient to resolve a dispute, the matter will proceed to adjudication (ie. hearing) in order to resolve the dispute. The Department’s new tribunal board members are responsible for presiding over such disputes. All board members have strong legal backgrounds and expertise in property management, housing development and consumer matters pertaining to rental housing in order to assist in the resolution of disputes between landlords and tenants.

The Western Cape RHT is one of the many services offered by the Department to residents of the province.