Durban - A smelly cesspool and eyesore of a property that has been lying in a state of decay for decades has raised the ire of neighbours.
Eric Bell, back in 2010, appeared in the Daily News report on his concerns about the property having – back then – been under renovation for 10 years, and still has the same gripe.
The owner, Cholaram Maharaj, told the Independent on Saturday he had not visited the property “in ages, was sorry and shocked”, but now has a buyer offering R1.8m.
“He’s said he has had a buyer many times previously to take the heat off,” Bell said upon hearing about the buyer.
The overgrown property is partly renovated, messy, smelly and has a swimming pool thick with floating plant growth.
Maharaj claims its handful of “non-problematic and quiet” residents living there, for free, work in construction in the area. The irate residents believe they are squatters who have been subject to police raids in the past and have dumped domestic waste into the Palmiet River.
One told the Independent on Saturday he worked at a nearby home.
Bell, who was in the building industry for 35 years, pointed out that what renovation work had been done was sloppy and without plans, which Maharaj refuted, saying an architect had been involved.
The owner is on record in 2010 as saying he battled to find builders to do renovations because they were all busy with work related to the World Cup and that once complete, the property would “look like a palace”.
Maharaj claims that a top storey he had added now had three en-suite bedrooms and a granite kitchen.
He questioned whether there wasn’t a link between neighbours knowing he had a buyer and bringing up the issue of it being a problem house from time to time, suspecting that it was whenever their offers of about R200 000 were ignored.
He also said yesterday that he would fix the place up within five to six days.
Bell further questioned how the municipality could have let the house reach its present state of decay, “while Maharaj lives in uMhlanga and leaves us with this mess” that was “unbecoming of the area” and increased the threat of crime.
Maharaj said he lived in Durban North.
Another resident, Graham Howard, said he would like to know how it was possible that some residents had to “abide by the rules” – while others appear to “get away with” not doing so.
“If this property was condemned, how was it possible for Dr Maharaj to acquire the property and build on it?" he asked.
“Where were the inspectors who normally are very active in our area when we activate minor repairs and alterations to our homes – were they monitoring the progress with this home and making sure it complied to the rules?” Howard asked.
“What does he currently owe the municipality for rates, water and electricity – has he been paying for the past 20 years? Has the house been approved and signed off for residence, and if not, what instructions has the municipality given to Dr Maharaj with respect to the property?
“Why does Dr Maharaj not live in his home – is there something wrong with it, and why has he not been able to secure a legal tenant for the house in the past 20 years?” Howard asked.
Maharaj said he would only answer the question about why he chose not to live there.
“I prefer Durban North because it is safer,” he said.
The eThekwini Municipality had not responded to queries sent to them on Thursday at the time of publishing.
The property was sold in 2005 after suffering flood damage. Maharaj said he bought the property cheap and had done sufficient work on it to avert flood damage last April.
Bell said any buyer would have to spend about R1m demolishing it before being able to do anything with the property.
“What’s sad is that the house is in such a beautiful spot right on the river,” said another Westville resident, Pat Reddy, who jogs past it along Roger Shishi (formerly Blair Atholl) Road who is involved in environmental work in the Palmiet Nature Reserve and along the Palmiet River.
“It really does have an impact on the environment,” Reddy said.
The Independent on Saturday