Residents threaten to burn down abandoned house

Residents neighbouring an abandoned house in Klopperpark have reportedly threatened to burn it down if action is not taken by council have the property cleaned up.

According to Klopperpark resident, Mr Simon Lapping, the owner of the house has not been seen in months.

“Letters have been delivered to the house a number of times and officials from the Health Department have also been on-site,” said Mr Lapping.

He added that the last he heard, the owner of the house was over R170 000 in arrears with rates and taxes, as well as with the water and lights accounts.

“Every wire and fitting has been stolen from the house and local children have broken every single window,” said Mr Lapping.

“Residents are ready to burn the house down,” he added.

According to Mrs Nerina Nienaber, who lives across the road from the house, it was last occupied by a group of foreign nationals.

“They built a number of shacks in the back yard. They were running some unsavoury exercises from the house, including prostitution,” she said.

Mrs Nienaber added that a court order was issued for the then residents to vacate the property but when they left, a mentally ill Zimbabwean man living in the area as a vagrant moved onto the property.

“He would go around the neighbourhood collecting bottles and other goods for recycling, but he would never recycle anything. He would just dump it in the yard,” she said.

The home owner reportedly hired several people to clean the property but the mentally ill man attacked them.

“People had to have stitches, it was serious,” said Mrs Nienaber.

Shortly afterwards, the man’s family arrived and took him back to Zimbabwe.

“After that, children sawed off the burglar bars, broke the windows and stole taps. The geyser and all the electrical wires were also stolen,” said Mrs Nienaber.

“The funny thing is, officials from the municipality arrive here every second month or so to switch the power off, even though there is no power in the house anyway,” she added.

Residents are also worried that that neglected house could impact crime levels in the area.

Ward 92 councillor, Clr Ashley Rutherford, said council was aware of the situation with the property and were taking the appropriate measures to rectify the matter, bearing in mind that legal procedures take time.

“Mr Lapping indicated last year that he wanted to buy the property and was advised that councillors may not give out private information regarding property owners. We are not estate agents,” said Clr Rutherford.

The spokesperson for the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM), Mr Themba Gadebe, said when the complaint was received, the EMM took action to attend to the complaint and to address the health nuisance and unsatisfactory conditions on the property in accordance with the health bylaws.

“In terms of the provisions set out in the bylaws, the homeowner was instructed to take steps in order to redress the existing health nuisance.

“She was told to clear the premises of all accumulations of filth, debris, rubble, rubbish, glass or undergrowth which is unsightly, or is likely to become a nuisance or injurious to health, or cause any annoyance in the neighbourhood,” said Mr Gadebe.

In order to enforce the legislation, inspections and statutory notices were served.

An inspection was conducted on February 27 and was followed by a notice served to the property owner on March 3.

On March 26, officials conducted a re-inspection of the property and found that conditions were unchanged.

“A final notice was issued on April 22, 2014 and hand-delivered to the caretaker of the current residence of the homeowner by the area environmental health practitioner,” said Mr Gadebe.

He added that during an inspection on August 19, 2014, conditions at the house still remained unchanged.

“The matter was referred to the EMM’s legal and corporate department to take legal actions,” said Mr Gadebe.