Nearly half of City of Joburg tenants don't pay rent

Nearly half of the people living in the City of Johannesburg’s properties do not pay rent and collectively owe the city more than R250m.

According to the Johannesburg Social Housing Company (Joshco) – which manages the metro’s rental stock – about 8,900 tenants live in 34 properties.

In its annual report, tabled during the city’s annual general meeting of its entities recently, Joshco’s collection levels continue to decrease, with only 56% collected against a target of 90% in the 2021/2022 financial year. Joshco said rental income made up 51% [R181m] of total revenue [R357m] received at the end of the previous financial year.Nonpayment of rent means the city incurs costs of providing services such as water and refuse collection to defaulting tenants and gets nothing in return. This has also resulted in the suspension of maintenance and the condition of some units deteriorating.

Joshco said it appointed a debt collection company to recoup R259m owed by tenants but only R12m was collected.It has now appointed four more debt collection companies at another cost to Joburg ratepayers.

According to the report, the number of tenants whose accounts were handed over to Joshco’s lawyers grew from 2,996 to 4,370 between July 2021 and June 2022.

The amounts handed over grew from R126m to R259m in the same period.

“There are tenants who are working but refusing to pay because they believe that this a government-owned property and there is no need to make any payment,” said Joshco spokesperson Nthabiseng Mphela.

Joshco said the Covid-19 lockdown had led to job losses.

“The majority of our tenants experienced salary cuts, or even worse got retrenched and those who were self-employed closed shop as the result of the lockdown. “Joshco is a social housing institution strictly responsible for the provision of affordable rental accommodation…”

Joshco provides housing to people with an income between R1,850 and R22,000 per month. Rent ranges from R500 to R5,400.

Residents who spoke to Sowetan cited unemployment, poor service delivery by Joshco and alleged failure by the housing entity to give them title deeds after renting the units for over five years as reasons for nonpayment.

Sowetan could not confirm the veracity to the rent-to-own agreement, with Joshco denied that there was a rent-to-own agreement with the tenants.

A resident who did not want to be named and lives at Tshedzani flats in Roodepoort, on the West Rand, said he stopped paying rent and because he believed he was renting to own when he moved into the unit in 2010. He said he last paid rent in 2016 and owes around R260 000.

“I stopped paying rent because I lost my job. Another reason I stopped paying is because I have a problem with being a perpetual rent payer. I do not know how much my rent is now. The government [municipality] should change its policy and make us owners of our units.”

Another tenant who lives in Pennyville, Johannesburg, said she stopped paying rent in 2018 after the death of her husband, who was a breadwinner.

The woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said when they moved into the unit in 2010 rent was R1,500 a month. It is now R2,500.

“I am unemployed and surviving on my R960 child support grant every month. I use this money to buy food and electricity.”

She said Joshco has not fixed the broken geyser, toilet and leaking bath tub in her unit. “The toilet seat is loose and the flushing button is broken. I have to use a tooth brush to flush the toilet. “I reported this to Joshco three months ago and no one has been sent to fix this. If I pay, what am I paying for?”

She said her unit should be in her name because she was promised a title deed verbally by a Joshco official in 2010 provided she makes uninterrupted rental payments for five years. She said she owes more than R150 000.

Mphela said: “If a tenant is in arrears of more than a month and the reported complaint does not threaten the tenant’s health or the structure, e.g. geyser water is not hot, the tenant is advised to go to Joshco to make an acknowledgement of debt payment before that geyser can be attended to.

“If a tenant is in good rental payment standing, Joshco daily maintenance has turnaround times of fixing reported complaints from within 12 hours and seven days depending on the category of the complaint.”

On tenants’ demand for title deeds, Mphela said: “Joshco is a social housing entity and does not have rent-to-own properties. Joshco doesn’t issue title deeds nor have a mandate to do so, which means that any tenant in possession of a title deed, doesn’t qualify to reside in any of the Joshco rental properties.”

Mphela urged tenants with rent-to-own lease agreements to bring them forward for investigation.

kokam@sowetan.co.za