Troubled water bills: Rental owner missing while tenant’s account balloons

A Mitchells Plain woman is kwaad for the City of Cape Town after she was slapped with sky-high water bills while the owner of her rental house is missing in action.

Tasneem Adams, 36, said she has been living at the Sovereign Road property in Morgen’s Village for the last three years but has been plagued by one issue after the other, including exorbitant water bills.

“In the first few months, I found out that this house belonged to the local renting council and I was renting from somebody, a Miss L Adams, that had a contract with them,” she says.

“Since the first few months of living here, the water bills were very high and there was even a bill of R500 000 last year.

“When I asked about that at the renting offices, they said I must ask the owner.

“I was even told to stop paying rent by the renting offices because the homeowner cannot be found.

“And then all of a sudden that high water bill was just scratched, but now because of a leak, the bills are high again.”

The mom of two said the latest rates paper came to just over R10 000, while she’s finding herself in the strange situation of wanting to pay rent but being unable to.

“The City says they can’t help, I must speak to the renting council, but the renting council says the house has been sold, I must speak to the owner, who cannot be found.

“My water has been on drip now for so long but there is nothing I can do about it because they tell me I am an illegal tenant.”

Clarence Human, the developing officer of the Renting Council, says the house was sold privately a few months ago.

“Currently in Morgen Village about 80 percent of the properties have been sold off to private owners but there are various issues holding up the transfers.

“We cannot deal with the issues of water pipes if the clients are no longer on our books.”

After two days, the City of Cape Town failed to respond to queries about the issue.

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