A GROUP of more than 20 residents occupying a block of flats in Southernwood live in squalor owing to a rental dispute with their landlord.
The flats are dilapidated and use illegal power connections.
The toilets are broken and the bath tubs and taps leak as does the roof.
Residents said they wanted land lord Selwyn Hall to fix the place since they paid rent.
Hall said yesterday he had plans to redevelop the property and turn it into a student residence.
Some of his current residents are elderly and disabled. They said Hall was trying to evict them but had not provided other alternative accommodation.
Hall denied this saying the re sponsibility to evict the tenants lay with previous property owner Leon le Roux.
“I am a very reputable member of the public. I do not want to be associated with something that has to do with people being kicked out of their homes without a second home being provided for them,” Hall said.
“I do not own the place yet. I will only own it once the people have been moved out,” he said.
Le Roux said he had sold the property to Hall Selwyn in November last year and that the money he had been living on was from the property sale and not monthly rent from residents.
The Daily Dispatch visited the property in Fairview Road yesterday and found children as young as five jumping over illegally connected electricity cables.
Resident Dennis Hearn said he was worried because drug dealers used some of the vacant flats to sell drugs to school children. He said numerous attempts by Hall to kick them out had been unsuccessful.
“He sent us letters saying he wanted to seal totally shut down the main gate and wanted us to park our cars in the street, but it’s too dangerous,” Hearn said.
Johan Petzer, a physically disabled resident, said he struggled to move around and his bed-ridden friend Darryl Raubenheimer could not even make it to the toilet.
Ida Dywagi claimed she paid a monthly rent of R2300 but still used a paraffin stove to cook for her two disabled daughters. —
Disabled residents live in squalor
The flats are dilapidated and use illegal power connections.
The toilets are broken and the bath tubs and taps leak as does the roof.
Residents said they wanted land lord Selwyn Hall to fix the place since they paid rent.
Hall said yesterday he had plans to redevelop the property and turn it into a student residence.
Some of his current residents are elderly and disabled. They said Hall was trying to evict them but had not provided other alternative accommodation.
Hall denied this saying the re sponsibility to evict the tenants lay with previous property owner Leon le Roux.
“I am a very reputable member of the public. I do not want to be associated with something that has to do with people being kicked out of their homes without a second home being provided for them,” Hall said.
“I do not own the place yet. I will only own it once the people have been moved out,” he said.
Le Roux said he had sold the property to Hall Selwyn in November last year and that the money he had been living on was from the property sale and not monthly rent from residents.
The Daily Dispatch visited the property in Fairview Road yesterday and found children as young as five jumping over illegally connected electricity cables.
Resident Dennis Hearn said he was worried because drug dealers used some of the vacant flats to sell drugs to school children. He said numerous attempts by Hall to kick them out had been unsuccessful.
“He sent us letters saying he wanted to seal totally shut down the main gate and wanted us to park our cars in the street, but it’s too dangerous,” Hearn said.
Johan Petzer, a physically disabled resident, said he struggled to move around and his bed-ridden friend Darryl Raubenheimer could not even make it to the toilet.
Ida Dywagi claimed she paid a monthly rent of R2300 but still used a paraffin stove to cook for her two disabled daughters. —
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