PUB&GRILL DEFAULTS ON RENTALS SINCE 2016

MBABANE – Popular Ezulwini eatery and watering hole, Pub&Grill (PTY) has been taken to court over rentals.

The Gables (PTY) Limited which owns the building where Pub & Grill operates its business has since instituted legal proceedings where it is demanding E433 641 31 in respect of arrear rentals.

In its application, Gables (PTY) Limited alleged that from the month of July 2016, Pub&Grill had defaulted in paying its monthly rentals regularly or had not paid them at all for the premises it occupied.

It is seeking an order that pending payment of the arrear rentals and other charges in the amount of E433 641 31, the removal of any movables from the premises where the respondent is situated be interdicted.

Lebohang Clayton, who is the director of Pub&Grill, has been cited as the second respondent in the matter.
According to the applicant’s property manager, Althea Friedman on July 2016, the parties entered into a lease agreement. She alleged that it was agreed that the applicant would lease its premises at Gables to the respondent.

She averred that when the parties entered into the agreement, the applicant was represented by Jonathan Van Wyk in his capacity as the director of the applicant and the respondent was represented by Lebohang Mary Clayton.
She submitted that in April 2018, the parties mutually cancelled the initial agreement and entered into a new lease agreement owing to a reduction of size of the leased premises.

Friedman told the court that the material terms of the agreement were that: the lease would endure for a period of three years commencing from April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2021.  It was also allegedly agreed that the respondent would pay the following; a monthly rental in the sum of E46 692 19 for the initial period with an escalation rate of 10 per cent per (clause 3 of the agreement of lease) reduced from the amount of E48 785 76 and that on signing of the agreement, the respondent would pay a security amount of E27 000.

The parties, according to Friedman further agreed that the respondent would be responsible for the payment of electricity consumed on the premises in the following manner: Where a separate meter had been installed on the leased premises, its reading shall be ‘prima facie’ proof for electricity consumption on the leased premises and respondent would pay the costs involved to the supplier of electricity in the manner determined by the supplier.

She averred that they also agreed that, the applicant would be entitled to cancel the lease and retake possession of the premises, without prejudice to any of its rights under the lease or law.
The property manager informed the court that Pub& Grill had continuously been in occupation of the lease premises since July 1, 2016 in terms of the initial agreement.

She claimed that from inception of the lease agreement, the respondent had failed to pay rentals timeously and regularly.
The application by the applicant was filed under a certificate of urgency by its lawyer Mancoba Tsambokhulu of Waring Attorneys. 
The matter is still pending before Judge Doris Tshabalala.

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