GEORGE NEWS - Noise disturbance from a property in Mann Street that was converted to accommodate the maximum number of tenants allowed legally on a residential property, has neighbours at the end of their tether.
George Herald reported about the neighbours' desperate outcry when they lost their privacy and peace and quiet after the property owner converted the buildings on the erf to accommodate a group of noisy rugby players.
After months of complaints to George Municipality, the rugby players moved out and the property was sold.
Complainants' hopes for an improvement in tenants were shattered when the new owner welcomed a bunch of students and a family onto the property and they were once again having to contend with noise disturbance at all hours.
"I do not mind anyone in the street being heard from time to time; that is fairly reasonable. But when I have to endure each evening loud shouting and screaming for hours on end - that is where I draw the line," says one complainant in email correspondence with officials of George Municipality.
Another neighbour expresses her frustration about one specific night when the noise carried on deep into the night, "At a stage the screaming was so loud that I thought the inhabitants were being attacked."
She says the garages, situated right on the boundary of the property, had also been converted into multiple housing by the previous owner, which exacerbates the problem. "I do not know how the municipality approved this without consent of the neighbouring property."
In its email correspondence with complainants, a senior municipal official is adamant that the conversions comply with the building regulations. The George Integrated Zoning Scheme By-law allows two dwellings on a Single Residential Zone I property, and five unrelated people per unit.
The municipality is, however, investigating the new owner's addition of kitchenettes to some of the rooms without municipal approval.
The official writes that the property has approved building plans for two dwelling units and the configuration of the two units is such that a maximum of nine lodgers may live there. There were 10, but the owner has let one of the tenants go after being notified.
Students' conduct
The municipality is also not budging on its view that the students' conduct should be addressed by Nelson Mandela University (NMU) that has house rules for its students.
But the complainants disagree and feel that noise disturbance falls under the law enforcement section of the municipality.
They say the problem was in the first instance caused by the municipality through its approval of the conversion of the units on the property.
Owner must also live on property
One of the complainants proposes that Council consider a by-law that determines that adult supervision should live in where students lodge.
"Preferably, rooms must be made available only where owners also live on the premises," she says.
In response, Director of Human Settlements, Plan-ning and Development Lauren Waring says such recommendations will be taken into consideration with the next amendment of the George Integrated Zoning Scheme By-law.
The owner of the property says he is willing to meet with the complainants to address the situation. The illegal alterations he made to some of the rooms will be addressed.
NMU spokesperson Milisa Piko said the university had not received communication from the complainants. The official to whom an email complaint was sent, has been part of an employee strike action and would not have seen his emails, but a representative of the university's student housing section would be visiting the students at this property this week.
Read a previous article:
Regulations not suitable for residential property
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