A landlord who locked his tenant out of his apartment is being threatened with a lawsuit for breach of contract.

According to the landlord, the tenant owed him rent and had promised to pay, but never kept his promises.

"I just got tired of his promises to pay me my rent. He lived in my apartment and, for the last six months, never paid me any rent. I got fed up with the situation and I decided last month that I was not going to let him live any longer at the apartment," the landlord said.

"When the tenant left for work one day, I put his furniture and clothes outside the apartment and locked the door. I am a pensioner and I have to use the rent to help to pay my bills."

"I asked him, on many occasions, to move out of the apartment so I could rent it to someone who would pay the rent, but he refused. This man is working, and it is not that he cannot afford to pay his rent, but he just don't want to pay me.

"In addition to his refusal to pay, he is very disrespectful to me and my wife. He curses indecent language whenever we ask him for the rent. Sometimes, when he sees us, he slams the door and keep saying we live our lives already so we must let him live his life.

"I know I was wrong to lock him out but forced me to do so. I worked hard all my life and bought my house so I could live comfortable in my old age.

"If this man knows that he does not like to pay rent, then he should buy his own apartment. I prefer to go to court and explain the situation to the judge, than to have this man in may place, disrespecting me and my wife.

After I put out his things, he moved to his mother's home which, I think, is the best place for him to stay because he is very irresponsible."

"Last week, I was at home when he came there with two of his friends, threatening me that he was going to sue me for breach of contract because I had forced him out of the apartment. I told him he should go ahead and take me to court, sue me, because I am the one who should be suing him for my rent.

Do you think he has a case against me for putting him out, because of his bad behaviour, and refusal to pay the rent?" he queried.

It is a breach for you to lock the tenant out of the apartment. The proper course was for you to give him a written notice to leave the apartment. If he did not leave within the specified time, then you could take him to court and get an order for him to leave the apartment.

Section 27 (1) of the Rent Restriction Act states "except under an order or judgment of a competent court for the recovery of possession of any controlled premises, no person shall forcibly remove the tenant from those premises or do any act, whether in relation to the premises or otherwise, calculated to interfere with the quiet enjoyment of the premises by the tenant or to compel him to deliver up possession of the premises". Anyone who is convicted in a Resident Magistrate's Court of such an offence can be imprisoned for a term not exceeding 12 months.