The FF Plus in Gauteng rushed to the aid of a Pretoria resident who received a thirty-day eviction notice from the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development over the past weekend.
The person, who has been residing on the property since 1990, was told to vacate the property seeing as a non-existent ‘lease contract’ that was allegedly entered into with the Department was not being complied with. All this while the person is the legal owner of the property with a mortgage with a prominent financial institution.
Out of sheer desperation to get help, the owner posted the eviction notice on social media where the FF Plus’s MPL in Gauteng, Philip van Staden, spotted it and immediately took action.
Van Staden engaged with the MEC for Infrastructure Development in Gauteng, Mr Jacob Mamabolo, and brought the notice to his attention. The FF Plus also handed the proof of the property’s mortgage deed to the MEC and insisted that an urgent investigation be conducted into the matter.
The property has been mortgaged with a prominent financial institution since 2008. The MEC undertook to investigate the matter and to contact the owner in person as well.
The FF Plus in Gauteng wants to warn all property owners in the province not to just accept any written notices from Gauteng departments and vacate their properties without more ado. If an owner is a legal bond-holder of a property or if the property has already been paid off and registered on an owner’s name at the deeds office, then no governmental institution, be it municipal or provincial, can hand the owner a notice that compels him or her to vacate the property.
With the current wave of land grabs in the province, owners must be on guard. If property owners receive a written notice from any department to vacate their property while they are a legal bond-holder or they have the title deed, then the FF Plus must be informed of this immediately at help@vfplus.org.za.
Contact details: 060 556 4347
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