Refuse and Common Areas

The room you pay for is not the only space you live in. The kitchen, the passage, the yard and the municipal bins decide whether a Durban student house stays lettable. ManjeProp will send a contractor for a broken gate. We will not send one to collect last night’s pizza boxes unless the lease or a specific instruction says so.

This is the line between a fault and a house standard.

What is a fault

Use Report a fault when the common area is broken or unsafe:

Gate or pedestrian latch failed
Entrance light dead
Drain in the yard standing and smelling of sewage
Bin area flooding because a tap will not close
Palisade leaning, step broken, handrail loose
Pest evidence that looks like more than a weekend of crumbs — describe what you see
Someone dumped a mattress that is blocking an exit

Category is usually General maintenance, Access, Security or Water / leak. Photograph the object, not the housemate you blame.

What is a house rule

Bins out on the collection day the house uses. Bags tied. No food left in an open bowl on the stove. Passage kept clear enough to leave in a fire. Recyclables if the house separates them. Furniture that belongs inside, kept inside.

If one person never takes a bag out, that is occupancy and house rules, not an emergency ticket. If the bin has been missing for a week because it was stolen, that is a ticket.

Refuse that becomes a health problem

A bag torn open by animals, waste against a kitchen door, nappies or rotting food in a heat wave — say so plainly on the form. We may need a clean-up as a task and a conversation with the house. Do not set the pile on fire. Do not pour bleach into a stormwater drain as a personality.

If you find medical waste or something that looks chemical, do not handle it. Photograph from a distance, mark the report High or Emergency depending on risk, and phone +27 60 313 6961.

Common kitchens

A dead stove plate, a fridge that is warm, a sink that will not drain, a gas smell, a tap that runs without rest — those are faults. A sink full of dishes is not. Report the trap. Wash the dishes.

Do not store a raw chicken in a shared fridge without a name and a date if the house uses that system. Do not switch a house fridge off at the wall because your leftovers lost.

Passages, fire and security

Bicycles, broken desks and locked cages in a narrow passage are how people fail to get out. If an exit is blocked, that is Security or General maintenance and it is not petty. If a stranger is sleeping in the yard, that is Security: if you are in danger, SAPS first, then us.

Do not prop a security gate open “for deliveries” and leave it that way overnight. If the closer is broken, report the closer.

Between tenants

Turnover is owner work. Staff walk the common areas before a listing goes live. A beautiful bedroom advertised next to a week of refuse is a listing that should have waited. Garden service and bin-area wash-downs belong on tasks and repairs, with photos, not in a caption that says “secure student living” while the photo is cropped at the door.

How to write the ticket

Property, which common area, what is wrong, since when, whether it is unsafe now. Photo of the blockage or the broken fitting. Your number.

Do not attach a manifesto about who never cleans. Staff are not a tribunal for chores. We will still read “bin stolen” and “sewage in yard.”

If the same gully smells after a plumber has already been, quote the old reference. A common-area drain that returns is a stack or a main, not a new personality. The repair log is how we see that.

Parents viewing should walk the bin area and the passage on purpose. Mention what you saw on the enquiry form. We would rather fix a latch before a lease than after a first-night fright.

If a cleaner or garden service attends between tenants, that does not retire your duty during the term. The turnover wash-down is vacancy work. Tuesday’s pizza is yours.

Common areas are the house’s reputation. Report what is broken. Do the small human things the lease already asked for.

Report a fault · +27 60 313 6961