The struggle continues for the tenants of West Point Lodge (WPL) in Durban to have secure tenure with the provincial government, the owner of the property. A government official colluded with an estate agent in a fraudulent scheme by inflating the market values of the properties and subsequently imprisoned. The seller maintained total control of the building for almost a decade, generating rental income.The Organisation of Civic Rights (OCR) conducted surveys of each household, engaged the provincial government’s department of human settlements to take control of its property and to provide security of tenure to the tenants. After much pressure from the OCR, the department barred the landlord, effectively taking control of its building in December 2010. The survey results showed that the residents were tenants who occupied rooms. Seventy seven people occupied the 38 households surveyed: 31 were adult females, 1 tenant occupied the room for more than a year and 37 tenants were in occupation for less than a year. All the respondents were occupying in terms of oral leases with varying monthly incomes.Whether the occupants were lodgers or tenants became contentious, defining their legal rights. This report established that the occupants or residents of WPL were in fact tenants and the rooms they occupied fell within the definition of a dwelling and not a lodge. As a tenant, several statutory laws come into play, regulating the tenant-landlord relationship, which do not relate to lodgers. The eThekwini municipality misdirected itself in issuing a licence to operate a lodge.