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Interviews Of Prospective Tenants By Corporate Body Trustees |
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Hi Vivien
Hope you are good and well, not sure if you will remember me, but we thoroughly enjoyed your training and is still enjoying the emails we get on a regular basis.
What i wanted to just clear with you is the following.
I am sure you told us when we discussed discrimination etc that body corporates are not really permitted to give interviews in order to approve the clients we are signing up for a specific property.
Please won’t you shed some more light on this for us.
~ Regards Adri ~
Reply:
Dear Adri
I would have pointed this out during discussions about discrimination and urge you to be most careful in this regard.
If the Trustees wish to interview prospective tenants with a view to discrimination this is viewed as a no-no as it is unfair discrimination. If however they wish to know whether the person has a pet, a caravan, a boat or even children if the complex is populated mostly by elderly folk, this is OK, but if it is to see if the person is ‘gay’, black or single etc, this is viewed as unfair and against our Constitution.
I would request that the owner of the unit inquire as to what the criteria are if the prospective tenant is being interviewed and then decide whether this is fair. If necessary ask the owner to present the application form of the prospective tenant to the Trustees so that they can see whether he is financially able to afford the rental. If there are any good references, hand in these as well.
If they do interview your tenant and reject him, they will have to give a good reason as to why, and this may give the tenant grounds to approach the Constitutional Court if it is on a discriminatory basis. The basis of the interview must be lawful and justifiable even if the interview process is a rule of the body corporate.
Personally I hate these interviews but I also understand that the Trustees have a far greater interest in the building as part owners than a tenant. Much damage is caused by tenants who are often not prepared to follow conduct rules, creating a great deal of problems in these complexes. So you are between a rock and a hard place in this instance!!
Good luck!
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