Renewal Questions
Browse reliable answers on South African lease renewals, dates, notice periods, and the Consumer Protection Act.
Deadlines and timing
When must I notify a tenant that their fixed-term lease is expiring?
Under section 14 of the Consumer Protection Act the notice must reach the tenant no more than 80 and no fewer than 40 business days before the fixed term ends — a window, not a single deadline.
What happens if a fixed-term lease simply runs out and nobody does anything?
Where the Consumer Protection Act applies, the lease does not end — it continues automatically on a month-to-month basis on the same terms, until the tenant agrees to a new fixed term or gives notice to end it.
How are business days counted for lease notice periods in South Africa?
A business day excludes Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. You exclude the day the first event happens and include the day the last one does — so a 20-business-day notice given on a Monday expires four weeks later, longer if a public holiday falls in between.
When should a letting agency start working on a renewal?
About 90 business days before the termination date. That leaves room to confirm the mandate, ask the landlord, fall back if they go quiet, put an offer to the tenant, and still collect signatures before the lease runs out.
When is a lease renewal officially late?
The hard line is 40 business days before expiry, because after that the statutory notice window has closed. Practically, a renewal is in trouble once the landlord enquiry at 60 business days has passed without an answer.
Notices and communication
How much notice must a tenant give to cancel a fixed-term lease early?
Section 14(2)(b) of the Consumer Protection Act lets a consumer cancel a fixed-term agreement on 20 business days' written notice, and the landlord may charge a reasonable cancellation penalty.
What should an agency do if the landlord never responds to the renewal enquiry?
Escalate on a fixed date rather than waiting. Re-Lease triggers a non-response fallback at 45 business days before termination, so the tenant can still be notified inside the statutory window.
What should happen if the tenant declines the renewal offer?
Confirm the vacate date in writing, arrange the outgoing inspection, and start the deposit process. The lease ends on its termination date, and the month-to-month continuation does not apply where the tenant has expressly declined.
Rent, deposits and terms
Does the Consumer Protection Act apply to every residential lease?
No. It applies where the landlord lets property in the ordinary course of business and the tenant is a natural person or a small juristic person. A private landlord letting one home, or a large company tenant, may fall outside it.
Can a landlord increase the rent when a lease is renewed?
Yes — a renewal is a new agreement on new terms, and the tenant is free to accept or decline. But where the Consumer Protection Act applies, a material change like an escalation must be disclosed in the expiry notice, not sprung afterwards.
What happens to the tenant's deposit when a lease is renewed?
It normally carries over rather than being refunded and re-taken. The Rental Housing Act's requirements continue to apply: the deposit stays in an interest-bearing account and the interest accrues to the tenant.
Signatures and documents
What should a lease renewal addendum contain?
It should identify the original lease and the parties, state the new period and rent, list every changed term, confirm what carries over unchanged, and be signed by everyone who signed the original.
Who has to sign a lease renewal, and in what order?
Everyone who was a party to the original lease. Where there are joint landlords or co-tenants, each signs in their own right — one co-tenant cannot sign for another without a written mandate.
Is an electronic signature valid on a South African lease renewal?
Yes, for ordinary residential leases. The Electronic Communications and Transactions Act gives electronic signatures legal effect; the exclusions cover the sale of land and long leases exceeding 20 years, not a normal renewal.
Records, privacy and compliance
What records should a letting agency keep of a lease renewal?
Enough to reconstruct the sequence: when the landlord was asked, when the tenant was notified, what was offered, what was agreed, who signed and when — plus the signed documents themselves.
Must a residential lease or its renewal be in writing?
A lease is valid even if it is oral, but the Rental Housing Act requires the landlord to reduce it to writing if the tenant asks. In practice a renewal should always be written, because it is the record of what changed.
Re-Lease does this for every lease you manage
The calculator works out one lease at a time. Re-Lease manages your whole portfolio — the register names what is due and who acts next, landlord and tenant decisions happen on secure links, and the signed addendum is filed automatically.
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