Tag: lease agreement

Property subletting is becoming popular in South Africa, largely because of aggressive interest rate increases and the high cost of living. Many people look for subtenants to help them pay their rent, while others seek to sublet if they’re moving elsewhere and can’t get out of their current lease.

A recent Cape High court judgment contains some useful guidance for insurers in adjusting COVID-19 business interruption claims involving recovery or remission of rental.

On 10 September 2021, Mauritius officially reopened its borders to South Africans, ending the 18-month travel ban imposed on SA visitors. The Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority (MTPA) openly welcomed South African tourists back to the Mauritius shores, which is a token of the relationship between the two countries.

Deciding which rental agreement is best for the income you want to earn on your property can be challenging for landlords. As with any successful business, your journey as a landlord should begin with a viable business plan of which your rental contract term is an essential part. 

On 23 April 2021, the Competition Commission published a notice in the Government Gazette in which it, inter alia, indicated that it had published its final non-confidential report of the commission’s findings on the impact of the COVID-19 Block Exemptions and the commission’s advocacy and enforcement work.

An option to renew a lease at a rental to be agreed between landlord and tenant, failing which to be determined by a third party, was not validly renewed by the lessee offering an increased rent that was unacceptable to the landlord and then not invoking the process for third party determination.

Businesses who are not providing essential services are likely to be directly and severely affected by the lockdown. For those businesses occupying leased premises, while they may retain the use of the leased premises for certain functions, for example storage of their goods and equipment, they will be deprived of the full use and enjoyment of the premises because they cannot continue to conduct trade or conduct business at the premises for the period of the shutdown.

Even the smartest minds around boardroom tables in many corporate companies could not have predicted that businesses around the world would be facing a crisis of this nature and this magnitude. COVID-19 has thrown a wrench into all business predictions and all 2020 plans. Anything that any business wanted to do this year, or likely even had planned for 2021, will have to be changed, or require a completely new approach.

It is common that instead of entering into a new lease every time the lease period expires, parties simply agree to extend the lease agreement for a further period. When this happens, are all of the terms renewed?