. . . battle without a winner

comes to rented accommodation, there is little joy for both the tenant and the property owner.
A number of property owners in Zimbabwe claim they are falling victim of the laws, which favour tenants and they cannot fully realise benefits of their investments.
“We are suffering because we are very lenient on tenants . . . if they are not employed they should move out because there is no other way we can find money for school fees, food and other basic needs,” said a Dzivarasekwa woman who declined to be named.
Her three tenants owe her more than US$300. They have not been employed for more than two successive months.
The woman has approached the Rent Board for authority to eject the troublesome trio from her premises. Another complainant from Chitung-wiza had come to seek an ejection order against his tenant. The landlord had been arrested for taking the tenant’s refrigerator over a US$50 dollar rental debt and was now turning to the Rent Board for advice.
Another elderly landlord alleged that his tenant is a member of the armed forces and often verbally abuses him when drunk and has on occasion threatened to shoot the landlord’s whole family.
The landlords averred that some tenants do not take due care of the properties, breaking everything in site and working up huge renovation bills.
They also accuse the tenants of running up astronomic utility bills before fleeing to new dwellings where they will cause similar turmoil before moving again.
A Sunningdale woman who shares a house with her landlady says there is no privacy when one is a lodger. She has been forbidden from sharing a bath with her husband and must apply for permission three days in advance before she gets sleep-over visitors.
A woman from Mbare, in similar circumstances, says any sign of increased income on the part of a tenant is a sure plea for arbitrary rental increments. Cooking food whose aromas evade the landlord’s precinct without sharing the goodies is another unpardonable offence, which will also result in increased rentals.
Some single women said they are often unfairly accused of being prostitutes and husband snatchers and are treated differently from male tenants.
They said while everyone is required to bring a prescribed provision list inclusive of items like disinfectants and floor polish, the male tenants are exempted from cleaning duties which are allocated to female tenants including those in formal employment who live home early.
Close family relationships are no protection in the bitter war between those with houses and the ones who pay to live there.
A Glen-Norah man says his stepmother wants him to be evicted from his own father’s house for failing to pay rentals in time for more than four months.
The father is late and the stepson insists that he is co-owner of the house and therefore should not be paying rentals to the stepmother.
The Rent Board will have to sit and deliberate on the full facts as presented by both parties before they can decide whether the complainant should pay rent in his father’s house.