Renting out your RDP house? Gauteng says it will take it back

Gauteng's housing department says it will take back RDP houses from beneficiaries who sell them or rent them out, and give them to the next qualifying person on the waiting list. Human Settlements MEC Tasneem Motara gave the warning in Soweto at the handover of the last 204 houses at the Jabulani Parcel K project (IOL).

The department will check who is living in each house when it registers the title deeds. "If we do not find the qualifying beneficiary when we come to register for title deed, we will take your tenant out and we will take the house and allocate it to another qualifying person on the waiting list," Motara said (IOL).

Who does the warning apply to?

Beneficiaries of government-subsidised houses in Gauteng, the homes most people call RDP houses. Motara spoke at Jabulani Parcel K, where the handover brought the number of completed RDP homes allocated there to 705. Allocations at the project started on 12 August (IOL).

She said government is often blamed for selling houses or giving them to foreign nationals, but that beneficiaries who sell or rent out their homes add to the problem (IOL).

Can you legally sell an RDP house?

Not on the open market in the first eight years. Section 10A of the Housing Act makes it a condition of every housing subsidy that you may not sell or otherwise give away the house or site within eight years of getting it, unless you first offer it to the provincial housing department (Housing Act, section 10A).

If you do offer it back, here is what the Act says happens:

• The department records that you want to move and keeps you on the waiting list for subsidised housing.
• Once you move out, the department is treated as the owner and has the title deed changed into its name.
• You are not paid anything for the house, but you can get another subsidised house if you qualify.

Source: Housing Act, section 10A.

What about renting it out?

Section 10A deals with selling, not renting. Gauteng's warning on renting rests on its occupancy checks: if the registered beneficiary is not the one living in the house when title deeds are registered, the department says it will remove the tenants and reallocate the house (IOL). If you are a tenant in an RDP house, that means you could be moved out even if you pay rent to the owner.

What else is planned at Jabulani Parcel K?

The wider development is meant to deliver 1,410 homes: 705 RDP walk-up units, 564 social housing units and 141 homes under the First Home Finance programme. The project was held up for four years by delays in building an electricity substation, and Motara said the next phases depend on fixing power supply in the area (IOL).