Court rules that Langstrand trailer park can stay

ONE of the hold-overs from the days when Langstrand was more of a holiday caravan park than a fast-developing upmarket beach resort has had its lifetime extended with a High Court ruling that dealt a blow to the Walvis Bay Municipality’s attempts to cancel the leases of the owners of mobile homes parked at the holiday resort.

High Court Judge Louis Muller has dismissed an application in which the Walvis Bay Municipal Council asked the court to in effect cancel the lease agreements that 51 people who own mobile homes at Langstrand have had with the Walvis Bay Municipality since the early 1990s. While the court’s ruling deals a blow to the Municipality’s attempts to wriggle out of the lease contracts, it might still spell the eventual end of the current lease contracts.Judge Muller indicates in the judgement that the leases are not necessarily as permanent as the Municipality has tried to argue in an attempt to convince the court of the correctness of its case.The presence of the mobile homes at Langstrand, or Long Beach, pre-dates most of the permanent houses and holiday homes that have been built at that spot on the long stretch of seashore between Walvis Bay and Swakopmund over the last close to 20 years.While Langstrand was first developed primarily as a beach resort and camping and caravan site, more recent developments have seen it taking on the air of a much more upmarket playground and holiday retreat for the moneyed classes.It has also been hosting a certain well-known celebrity couple over the past two months – a fact that did not escape Judge Muller’s attention either.The Judge made a remark about this in his judgement, mentioning that Langstrand is “a place which became a household name as a result of the immense publicity that the presence of two popular film stars created internationally”.”Anyone in Namibia, even a judge, could not escape the publicity attached to Long Beach,” he commented.The Walvis Bay Municipal Council attacked the current lease agreements of the mobile-home owners on several grounds, all of which failed to convince Judge Muller.Either the initial lease agreements that were concluded were outside the powers of the municipal officials who concluded them on behalf of the Municipality, or the renewal clauses in those leases suffered from the same defects or were against public policy, Cape Town senior counsel Norman Arendse argued on behalf of the Municipal Council – but without success, it turned out on Friday.It was still an all-white Walvis Bay Town Council that first approved the establishment of permanent caravan stands at Langstrand in 1989.In October 1993, only four months before Walvis Bay was to be reincorporated into Namibia, the Town Council decided that it would charge rent of N$150 a month on each of the caravan stand leases, and that this fee would be increased by 10 per cent a year.It also decided that a lease period of nine years and 11 months would apply for each of the caravan stands.On the Municipal Council’s first line of attack against the lease agreements, Judge Muller found that the Council could not deny that it was bound by the agreements, which had been signed by the then Mayor and Town Clerk of Walvis Bay.He also dismissed the Municipal Council’s argument that the renewal clause in the lease agreements is saddling it with a permanent obstacle, because it gives the people leasing the caravan stands the right to extend their leases, without a corresponding right to the Municipal Council to choose not to renew the leases.The renewal clause reads: “After the expiry of the lease agreement the lessee shall have the option to lease the site for a further period, subject to the escalation clause”.This appears to give Langstrand’s mobile-home owners the right to renew their leases only once, Judge Muller indicates in his judgement, without however making a definite ruling on this score.He stated: “Purely considering the wording of the renewal clause it appears to me that a particular lessee has the option to renew the lease once, after expiry of the lease, namely nine years and 11 months.”The Municipal Council also argued that the leases are against public policy, because in their view the leases will in perpetuity tie the Council’s hands in respect of dealing with the publicly owned assets of the Langstrand Caravan Park, while the rent for the caravan stands are also below market rates and cronyism marked the initial conclusion of the lease agreements – but Judge Muller could find no factual basis for these claims.In short, he found, there were lease contracts in existence, and the Walvis Bay Municipality would have to honour its end of the bargain.He dismissed the Walvis Bay Municipal Council’s application, and ordered it to pay the legal costs of the 51 leaseholders, who were represented by Dr Pieter Henning, SC, George Coetzee, and Johannesburg senior counsel Loetter Wepener.While the court’s ruling deals a blow to the Municipality’s attempts to wriggle out of the lease contracts, it might still spell the eventual end of the current lease contracts.Judge Muller indicates in the judgement that the leases are not necessarily as permanent as the Municipality has tried to argue in an attempt to convince the court of the correctness of its case. The presence of the mobile homes at Langstrand, or Long Beach, pre-dates most of the permanent houses and holiday homes that have been built at that spot on the long stretch of seashore between Walvis Bay and Swakopmund over the last close to 20 years.While Langstrand was first developed primarily as a beach resort and camping and caravan site, more recent developments have seen it taking on the air of a much more upmarket playground and holiday retreat for the moneyed classes.It has also been hosting a certain well-known celebrity couple over the past two months – a fact that did not escape Judge Muller’s attention either.The Judge made a remark about this in his judgement, mentioning that Langstrand is “a place which became a household name as a result of the immense publicity that the presence of two popular film stars created internationally”.”Anyone in Namibia, even a judge, could not escape the publicity attached to Long Beach,” he commented.The Walvis Bay Municipal Council attacked the current lease agreements of the mobile-home owners on several grounds, all of which failed to convince Judge Muller.Either the initial lease agreements that were concluded were outside the powers of the municipal officials who concluded them on behalf of the Municipality, or the renewal clauses in those leases suffered from the same defects or were against public policy, Cape Town senior counsel Norman Arendse argued on behalf of the Municipal Council – but without success, it turned out on Friday.It was still an all-white Walvis Bay Town Council that first approved the establishment of permanent caravan stands at Langstrand in 1989.In October 1993, only four months before Walvis Bay was to be reincorporated into Namibia, the Town Council decided that it would charge rent of N$150 a month on each of the caravan stand leases, and that this fee would be increased by 10 per cent a year.It also decided that a lease period of nine years and 11 months would apply for each of the caravan stands.On the Municipal Council’s first line of attack against the lease agreements, Judge Muller found that the Council could not deny that it was bound by the agreements, which had been signed by the then Mayor and Town Clerk of Walvis Bay.He also dismissed the Municipal Council’s argument that the renewal clause in the lease agreements is saddling it with a permanent obstacle, because it gives the people leasing the caravan stands the right to extend their leases, without a corresponding right to the Municipal Council to choose not to renew the leases.The renewal clause reads: “After the expiry of the lease agreement the lessee shall have the option to lease the site for a further period, subject to the escalation clause”.This appears to give Langstrand’s mobile-home owners the right to renew their leases only once, Judge Muller indicates in his judgement, without however making a definite ruling on this score.He stated: “Purely considering the wording of the renewal clause it appears to me that a particular lessee has the option to renew the lease once, after expiry of the lease, namely nine years and 11 months.”The Municipal Council also argued that the leases are against public policy, because in their view the leases will in perpetuity tie the Council’s hands in respect of dealing with the publicly owned assets of the Langstrand Caravan Park, while the rent for the caravan stands are also below market rates and cronyism marked the initial conclusion of the lease agreements – but Judge Muller could find no factual basis for these claims.In short, he found, there were lease contracts in existence, and the Walvis Bay Municipality would have to honour its end of the bargain.He dismissed the Walvis Bay Municipal Council’s application, and ordered it to pay the legal costs of the 51 leaseholders, who were represented by Dr Pieter Henning, SC, George Coetzee, and Johannesburg senior counsel Loetter Wepener.