'It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.' (attributed to Mark Twain) A married couple moved to Australia and rented out their South African family home while they tested the waters Down Under. Years later, once they had decided to remain abroad, they sold the property and gave their tenant notice under a clause that allowed them to cancel the lease on three months' written notice. The tenant argued that the leas

'The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.' (George Bernard Shaw) Many landlords assume that once a tenant stops paying rent, an eviction order will inevitably follow. A recent Western Cape High Court judgment shows how wrong that assumption can be. Despite rental arrears of more than R46 000 and an apparently legitimate grievance, a landlord's eviction application failed because of a problem many people overlook: the cancellation le