The penalty for turning a “blind eye” to what others use your property for could – if your tenants turn out to be criminals – be forfeiture to the State.
A recent High Court judgment highlights the need for you to take positive steps to ensure that your assets aren’t used to commit crime. The law recruits you – as a property owner – into an active role as a guardian of your property against crime. You can’t sit back and be “supine”. You must “where reasonably possible, take steps to discourage criminal conduct” involving the use of your property.
In the case in question, the tenants of a farm were using it to manufacture mandrax. The owners weren’t shown to have in any way participated in any illegal activity – but they nevertheless had their farm forfeited to the State in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act. They were unable to convince the Court that they had acted with the degree of “vigilance and care” which the law requires of owners.
The onus is very much on you there; so keep an eye on what your tenants are up to!
