Lodger’s have rights too
We recently published information by the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) on the issue of lodger’s rights. Here is one of the responses that we got:
Thank you for your informative news. That piece with lodgers’ rights has opened old wounds for me. We were renting 2 rooms in a house in Glen View 7 at $40 dollars each. We were paying our dues on time but to our surprise the landlord came one morning and told us to look for accommodation elsewhere. We assumed that there was 3 months notice but we were proven wrong as he started calling us 2 days later demanding us out. He started terrorizing us with phone calls and sms, each and every hour telling us time was not on his side. We requested him to give us time citing our demanding work schedules, 2 days was too little for us. l vowed that l was going to make him throw us out and would sleep by his gate with our the 9 months old baby. l am an African and l would like to say strange things started happening at the house during the night. There was one particular incident that really frightened us and the next morning we found ourselves in a rat infested storeroom a sympathetic friend had offered as temporary accomodation. For me, it was fine as long as l had shelter but the poor kid got ill. The rats had the habit of playing all over and would go for the food, clothes etc in that room. She had nausea and a running tummy and also got some rash from the lice the rats normally carry around. We only managed to find some decent place four months later and l believe what the man did to us was one of the most brutal, inhuman things anybody can do, especially to a baby.