COMMERCIAL and residential property owners will get their opportunity in the next two days to test in court if it is constitutional for local authorities to hold property owners responsible for tenants' water and electricity arrears.

Thirty landlords, under the umbrella of the Transfer Rights Action Campaign, will take on the City of Johannesburg and the Ekurhuleni Metro Municipality in the Constitutional Court, which is set to hear arguments today and tomorrow.

The campaign objects to landlords carrying the burden of their delinquent tenant s' unpaid municipal water and electricity accounts.

Should they succeed, owners forced to pay tenants' arrears may claim back millions from local government. Success will simplify property transfers, a headache for some owners trying to sell their properties.

In September last year, Port Elizabeth High Court judges Frank Kroon and Eric Leach ruled in two cases heard together that section 118 of the Local Government Municipal Systems Act was constitutionally invalid.

Mar 10 2004 07:52:30:000AM Nick Wilson Business Day 1st Edition