THE LAW OF LEASE PHILIP STOOP* LEGISLATION The Minister of Human Settlements, in accordance with the rules of the National Assembly, gave notice of his intention to introduce into Parliament the Rental Housing Amendment Bill, 2011 during the 2011 parliamentary session (see General Notice 765 in GG 34703 of 28 October 2011). However, the Bill was not introduced during 2011. CASE LAW ESSENTIALS OF LEASE In Ferndale Crossroads Share Block (Pty) Ltd and Others v Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality and Others 2011 (1) SA 24 (SCA), the question before the court was whether the agree- ment between the first and second appellant and the first respondent constituted a lease. In this case, the appellants had leased a piece of municipal land from the respondents to enable them to construct a bridge over a busy road in order to channel pedestrians from a taxi rank to their shopping centre and to help to solve the problem of the safety hazard caused by pedestrians crossing the busy road. The agreement contained provisions for the erection of a wall around the taxi rank and for the construction of twelve kiosks at the foot of the bridge. The parties complied with their respective obligations in terms of the agreement until 2006, when the first respondent caused hawker’s facilities to be erected outside the wall enclosing the taxi rank. Thereafter the respondents caused a portion of the wall to be demolished, which led to thousands of pedestrians streaming through the gap in the wall. The appellants sought an order declaring the agree- ment valid and enforceable and also sought interdictory relief against the respondents. The appellants contended that the agreement was not essentially a lease agreement, while the * BCom LLB LLM (UP) LLD (Unisa). Associate Professor in Commercial Law in the Department of Mercantile Law, University of South Africa, Pretoria. 868 Open Rubric