Housing (Right to adequate)

In this case, a landlord applied for the High Court to set aside a decision by the Gauteng Rental Housing Tribunal (“Tribunal”). Eighty rental tenants had brought a complaint to the Tribunal based on their landlord’s charge of about R385 per month per tenant for electricity in addition to the costs they paid for their individual consumption. The tenants discovered that the utility service provider, City Power, charged the landlord about R337,50 per month for the whole building. This meant that their landlord was generating a significant profit from the service charge.