“This house is not 4 sale.”
These words are inscribed in huge white-painted letters outside a family home in Soweto as family members ward off potential buyers.
When conducting its research, the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (Seri) established this was prevalent among homes in South African townships.
Seri on Tuesday released its report, Women’s Equal Rights Land and Housing, a gendered analysis of family homes in South Africa.
The report finds that women and children, often the primary occupants of family homes, are disproportionately affected by family home-related disputes.
Legal researcher Mark Clark, who researched and authored the report with help from SERI’s Women’s Space team, said the research was informed by a number of people who sought SERI’s help after facing evictions from their family homes. He said they have investigated what they call “family home”, where various family members all have rights to access and use a property or house.
“It has been a recurring feature that we have seen, that exists in many different contexts throughout South Africa and because of that, we see that it is something that is deserving of legal recognition [and] protection,” he said.
He said they saw a surge in evictions prompted by a situation where a family member would sell a “family home” without notifying the rest of the family members living in the house.
“The occupants, who are usually women and children, are then at risk of being evicted and potentially becoming homeless.
“This highlighted the fact that there is a need [for a family home] to be recognised as a legal concept so that those people can assert their rights as well and make sure that they don’t end up on the streets,” he said.
Clark said many victims consulted SERI and other organisations, especially when they are facing eviction and are confronted with people they don’t know claiming to be the new owner of the house.
He said that it turned out that a family member had sold the property. He said people usually use the moment of somebody’s passing away — the title deed holder — to take control of the property and essentially sell it.
“They have themselves appointed as the executor of the estate, sell the property and disappear from the scene. Meanwhile, the people who are living on the property, who are the family members, have no recourse,” he said.
Clark added that sometimes the property is sold while family members are completely unaware and, while they are trying to figure out what to do, they are already facing a potential eviction.
The research consisted of an extensive desktop review of secondary sources dealing with family homes and the limitations of title in the context where land is treated as family property. The sources were complemented with three semi-structured interviews with legal experts who have helped clients who are involved in family home disputes.
The report was also informed by various consultations that SERI staff participated in that were concerned with how to give legal recognition to the concept of a family home.
Clark said it was concerning that people who live in these homes don’t have enough information about how to administer the deceased’s estate and what to do if a family member passes away to ensure that property remains in the family.
“They don’t know what to do about registering a piece of land in somebody else’s name. It comes down to people sitting down as a family and deciding what to do with their property, their estate, before they pass away — that is the big crux of it.
“If people were to make a will before they died then it would be clearer what the intentions were and what they wanted. That would leave a bit more protection, but other than that sit, together and maybe agree this is a family home,” he said.
The report found several gender dynamics and gendered impacts that are at play in the context of family home disputes or that have been shored up by the limitations of private title in a context where a home is held as family property.
It established that the formalisation of informal and permit-based land rights of many black families into private title has had a wide-ranging and deeply gendered impact — which has threatened the tenure security of women.
It suggested several potential interventions that could address issues in the family home disputes including recognising the family home concept, amending the procedure for administration of the deceased estate and the transfer of ownership.
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