THE bills of a property owner are piling up as his house remains occupied by rent-flouting tenants in the south of Johannesburg.
Rosettenville property owner Marlon Pillay said his second property, at 55 Daisy Street, remains in the clutches of tenants who refuse to pay rent. It has been a constant battle for eight months, since July 2017, and Pillay told the COURIER that the bank is ready to repossess his own house because he bonded it as a second building to his Daisy Street property.
Pillay questions what he can do next since he has tried almost every avenue to get help.
According to Pillay, his Daisy Street property is now being occupied by vagrants off the street.
The City of Johannesburg has yet to respond to an inquiry to shed some light as to what Pillay can do next.
The issue of non-paying tenants at number 55 Daisy Street has been surrounded by controversy. A man named Jonathan Constable caught the attention of the COURIER after claims by the tenants that he, Constable, was helping them fight an unreasonable landlord.
This did not sit well with Pillay, who said the tenants’ allegations of ill-treatment were baseless and defamatory.
The COURIER, in a meeting with Constable prior his arrest for alleged property hijacking, was introduced to an organisation that Constable claimed to represent.
Constable told the COURIER that the organisation, called the National Immigrants Council of South Africa (Nicsa), sought to represent the rights of tenants in ensuring they received fair treatment from landlords.
Tenants paid a membership fee to Nicsa which, according to Constable, ensured they would be represented in disputes with and unlawful evictions by landlords.
Back-and-forth conversations between Pillay and Constable on social media were fruitless as an amicable consensus could not be reached.
Constable was adamant that Pillay was not the legal owner of the property, despite Pillay’s documented proof that the property belonged to him.
Constable was arrested in December for acting as a representative in two other properties. He is facing fraud charges and is currently in police custody along with two other accused.
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