Infrastructure
With respect to the Rental Housing Tribunal in the Western Cape:
- How many cases or disputes have been brought before the Tribunal in (i) 2020, (ii) 2021, (iii) 2022, (iv) 2023 and (v) 2024, (b) what have been the most common types of disputes or cases brought before the Tribunal in the same period, (c) what has been the Tribunal’s success or resolution rate per year in the same period and (d) what (i) communication and (ii) outreach strategies are in place to raise public awareness of the services offered by the Tribunal?
- The number of cases brought to the tribunal in the years requested:
2020/2021 | 2021/2022 | 2022/2023 | 2023/2024 | 2024/2025 |
1944 | 2544 | 2522 | 2910 | 3330 |
The relatively low number of cases lodged in the financial year 2020/2021 is due to the impact of the COVID pandemic.
- Most commonly lodged complaints
- Failure to refund deposit
- Unlawful notice to vacate
- Failure to do maintenance
- Failure to pay rental/municipal services
- Unlawful eviction/lockout
- The Tribunal’s success or resolution rate per year in the same period is
| 2020/2021 | 2021/2022 | 2022/2023 | 2023/2024 | 2024/2025 |
Cases captured | 1944 | 2544 | 2522 | 2910 | 3330 |
Hearings scheduled | 635 | 565 | 692 | 632 | 637 |
| 32.6% | 22.2% | 27.4% | 21.7% | 19.1% |
Not all cases which are captured result in hearings. Many of the matters are successfully resolved through mediation by the administrative leg of the Tribunal.
- (i) (ii) What communication and outreach strategies are in place to raise public awareness of the services offered by the Tribunal?
The Tribunal has identified and engaged with key stakeholders which include Rental Housing Advocacy groups (NGOs, CBOs and advice offices) as well as regulatory and complaints handling bodies e.g. Office of the Consumer Protector, Property Practitioners Regulatory Authority and the Community Schemes Ombud. The Tribunal is actively embarking on focused consumer education initiatives to increase public awareness of the services it renders to landlords and tenants.
