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BY PHILLIP CHIDAVAENZI
SOME regularly change keys to main doors just to frustrate their lodgers while others hike rentals without justification.
In extreme cases, lodgers in Harare’s high-density suburbs are given timetables to use the bathroom, especially in the morning when landlords want to rush to work.
But due to the current accommodation crisis in Harare, which has over 500 000 people on the housing waiting list, most lodgers prefer to suffer in silence and continue to live under difficult conditions.
Lodgers who spoke to The Standard last week said they were reluctant to use existing legal instruments to fight against ill-treatment and unjustified rental increases.
In Zimbabwe, lodgers are protected under the provisions of the Housing and Building Act (Rent Regulations, Statutory Instrument 32 of 2007), which guarantees their protection from exploitation by landlords.
They can also appeal to the Rent Board, an institution created under the Act, to mediate on disputes between lodgers and landlords.
However, Ronald Kabvunze, who rents a cottage in Southerton, said landlords had extensive wherewithal they could use to “haunt out” lodgers they regarded as problematic from their premises.
“I used to live at a place where the landlord would lock up the gate, change keys to the door and such other things,” he recalled.
“We went to the Rent Board and the landlord was adamant and efforts to resolve the disputes went on and on until I finally decided to move out.”
Kabvunze’s experiences mirror those of many other lodgers who have often learnt the hard way that it did not pay to trade punches with those under whose roof one was sheltered.
Simon Makoti, a lodger in Mufakose, said the relationship between landlords and their tenants was often uneasy and ambivalent, characterised by a fine blend of friendship and enmity.
To keep the peace, he observed, one was forced to dance to the landlord’s tune, no matter the discord.
“Moving up and down all the time can damage your property and you don’t need that,” he said.
“So the ideal situation is to stay at a place for as long as possible, and the only way that can happen is when you have peace with the house owner.”
The current relative economic stability being enjoyed in the country has given many lodgers hope of owning their houses. Many are making sacrifices, saving the little they earn, in a bid to escape from ill-treatment they experience from landlords.
Martha Kasirori, who owns a new house in Waterfalls, said she got inspiration and determination to build her own house from the ill-treatment she endured from her previous landlords.
“I remember our former landlady had a negative attitude towards lodgers and she did not make it a secret. She always had something nasty to say about us and was always a bother,” she recalled.
“But I thank her because those are the things that pushed us to consider having our own house.”
Langton Moyo, who owns a house in Kambuzuma, said he saw nothing wrong with landlords imposing their household rules that have to be adhered to.
“I tell every new lodger my rules on arrival,” he said.
“And if he continues to break the rules I kick him out. I also increase my rentals when demand for accommodation increases.”
National Housing and Social Amenities minister Giles Mutsekwa recently ordered landlords who had hiked rentals for their properties to revise them downwards to last year’s rates.
But most landlords disregarded his orders taking advantage of the housing crisis.
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