ABSA Commercial - 10 months to register commercial property bond - Sasol Service Station- Pathetic Service - No timelines- Chaos processes - DON'T EVER USE ABSA COMMERCIAL TO FUND YOUR DEVELOPMENTS PLEASE!!!

<p>ABSA and Sasol have a partnership agreement in which ABSA provides owners of property commerical property fiance to fund the development of new Sasol Service Station.</p> <p> </p> <p>ABSA commerical has 2 individuals that are appointed asrepresentatives to handle commercial property finance. They are as follows:</p> <p> </p> <p>Liezel Stemmet (Sales Consultant - Commercial Property Finance - Business Banking) </p> <p>Harry Mania (Regional Manager Gauteng Commercial - Commercial Property Finance - Business Banking)</p> <p> </p> <p>These 2 individuals are grossly *********** and negligent and do NOT adhere to timelines and do not understand the bank processes.</p> <p> </p> <p>The process to register the bond startedin April 2016. We are currently in December 2016 and the bond has still not being registered. The commerical property has 2 blue chip tenants and the leases on the property spand for 25 years. The repayment period on the bond is 10 years.</p> <p> </p> <p>I have been engaging with these individuals for approximately 10 months and we still have no progress.</p> <p> </p> <p>I have submitted all the necessary documents to and the valuation of the property was done by an accredited valuer of ABSA.</p> <p> </p> <p>Members ID<br />CC Documents<br />Title Deal<br />Sasol Letter of intent<br />Sasol lease</p> <p>KFC lease (Another blue chip head lease on the property that is currently earning prime rental)<br />Valuation of the property (Sent through from the accredited ABSA valuer)</p> <p> </p> <p>I have been chasing Liezel and Harry on a day to day basis to finalise the facility .Bilding has commenced and after several months of delaying ABSA was forced to provide a "overdraft" facility of R2m to cover the initial cost of the development. This overdraft was activated in October 2016.</p> <p> </p> <p>PLEASE NOTE THE PROCESS STARTED IN APRIL 2016.</p> <p> </p> <p>My problem is as follows:</p> <p><br />1. The property is worth R22m based on the valuation on only rental income<br />2. The amount we require is only R11m.<br />3. There are two blue chip leases on the property. Sasol and KFC.<br />4. When we met these 2 individuals indicated that I can borrrow upto R20m. I indicated to her we only needed R10m for the build but she can gives us an access bond of R15m should we require more funding in future to buy another property. We DON'T want our require any more funding on the property but if we can have an excess bond over the amount required for future use than that will be appreciated. This has been mentioned to her more than 200 times.<br />5. The property currently is free hold.</p> <p> </p> <p>Liezel and Harry are wasting there own clients time, Sasol's time and the contractors time. They have been dragging this matter for 10 month which has resulted in building already commencing. Now that I am receiving invoices as building has commenced on the site and is halfway complete, ABSA was forced to arrange a R2m "overdraft" in order for the project to continue and to avoid prejudicing their relationship with Sasol.</p> <p> </p> <p>This "overdraft" facility was provided because Liezel and Harry after 10 months of doing nothing have now being forced to provide the R2m to cover their own gross negligence in performing their duties and sheer incompetence.</p> <p> </p> <p>Once the R2m was in place at the enf of October 2016, We speciafically indicated to them building has commneced rapidly and the development bond needs to be registered. The principal agent anr Architect provided them both with a timeline of the withdrawals and payments needed and clearly indicated to them on email that by the 24th of November 2016 the bond will be registered.</p> <p> </p> <p>Liezel and Harry knowing very well of the timelines and payment required by the client and the contractor, totally disregarded the timelines and urgency of the registration of the development bond and only lodge the documents on 14 December 2016.</p> <p> </p> <p>I as the client have now received invoices to pay contractors at 15 December 2016. The R2m "overdraft" has now depleted by 24th November 2016 and I told Liezel and Harry you were clearly informed of the deadlines and payment schedule and based on your negligence and incompetence in performing your duties and after 10 monthos of wasting everyones time you will need to increase this "overdraft limit" to R3.6m to pay the contractors as they need payment before the December 2016 break.</p> <p> </p> <p>Liezel and Harry than come back to us and state the following:</p> <p> </p> <p><em>You signed the facility letter on 18 November 2016. But after us sleeping for 10 months we realised that we don't have the professional certificates of the engineer and quantity surveyor and hence we can't increase the "overdraft limit" to R3.6m.</em></p> <p> </p> <p>My response to them: <strong>The facility letter was signed on the 18th of November 2016.</strong></p> <p><strong>As mentioned before you are wasting our time and jeopardizing this development by asking for information that has either:</strong></p> <p><strong>Been provided on numerous occasions</strong><br /><strong>Is available and should have been requested months ago.</strong></p> <p><br /><strong>It is purely nonsensical to ask for information on the 15 of December 2016 when it is time to make payment to contractors. You have delayed the arranging of the facility from the beginning and was forced to implement the overdraft facility due to this. The overdraft facility was meant to ensure the bond was registered timeously so that the development bond is in place and payments occur as and when needed.</strong></p> <p><strong>Now that the registration of the bond is has not happened I as the client and the contractor are being put in a position and compromised. This is due to your negligence and incompetence in performing your duties and doing your job. I refused to work with you in the past and was still forced to deal with you.</strong></p> <p><strong>Half the site is built and certain professional staff have already being paid by ABSA. Now at this stage of the year when no one is available you want us to provide you with information which you should have asked for months ago. </strong></p> <p><strong>The information requested is a copy and paste exercise and is indicative of somewhere who does not adhere to timelines or is *********** in putting a simple development bond together. Due to this incompetence contractors are disgruntled and I as the client will now incur penalties.</strong></p> <p><strong>As emphasised already, Sasol needs to relook at the partnership with ABSA and the bank does not have any processes in place to fund petrol station developments. Staff at the bank do not understand there own processes and cannot adhere to timeliness and constantly request the same information over and over again. </strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>I am frustrated because of the following:</strong></p> <p><br />I have to tell themthe same things several times.<br />I have sent through the same documents more than 3 times.<br />She is never available and always never at the office.<br />She never answers her phone and when she does she can never speak or is driving.<br />She is constantly on leave.<br />She does not understand basic request from me as the client on the needs of the facility.<br />I refuse to deal with her going forward. I have lost money professionally by wasting my time setup up appointments with her and we are currently going to experience a stoppage on the development because contractors are not getting paid timeously.</p> <p><br />The following has happened and is direct consequence due to the delay in arranging the facility which has taken 6 months now:<br />1. Sasol is asking for proof of the facility. Sasol recommended ABSA based on an arrangement they have at head office level. Otherwise I would not have wasted my time.<br />2. Contractors are disgruntled and the Project will come to a halt soon. If this happens Both Sasol and us will lose money and this will be escalated to upper management at Sasol and ABSA at a senior executive level. I will also step in and contact the senior executive at the bank.<br />3. Sasol and I are building many more sites in the future. We can't work with a bank who is not interested in doing business. Sasol on the other hand have a target to build more than 200 stations country wide. ABSA is clearly not a suitable banking partner.</p> <p><br /> The following course of action will be taken:<br /> <br />Sasol has agreement with ABSA. That agreement is at head office level and the arrangement is that ABSA will fund all Sasol redevelopment in South Africa based on the head lese with Sasol. This agreement is Sasol specific.<br /> <br />The fact that I have an KFC on the property is additional collateral to ABSA. Based on this I should get preferential rate on the borrowing due to the:<br />KFC leases (Blue chip with long period and high rental)<br />Free hold property<br />Sasol Head lease<br />We already had an existing facility and bank accounts with ABSA. How hard is it to do credit worthy checks.<br />Sasol and ABSA have an arrangement at head office to fund redevelopment It Seems ABSA does not take Sasol as a credible partner and does not have confidence is the head lease. This needs to be communicated to Sasol at a senior executive level.<br />This is a zero risk facility for ABSA. There is more risk in borrowing money to someone to buy a house that arranging this facility.<br />The agreement between Sasol and ABSA is to fund property owners for the redevelopment of the site based on the head lease with Sasol. This has nothing to do with the fact I happen to have a KFC on the property which for some reasons is a problem for Liezel.<br /> <br />Liezel has been wasting my time and is constantly on leave. I am not making any progress with her. Everytime I ask regarding the facility and on numerous occasion indicate the urgency of the facility she keeps requesting more documents or just drags the process along.<br /> <br />If this is not resolved immediately and I am not allowed an increase in the overdraft to pay the contractors I will:<br /><br /></p> <p>Setup a meeting between Nedbank and Paul Bothma and indicate to Sasol that ABSA is not interested in funding redevelopment of new Sasol sites.<br />I have a friend who is a senior executive at Nedbank Corporate who will gladly accompany me to Sasol and take over the funding of all new Sasol sites in the future.<br />Sasol needs to know that bank they have partnered with are not interested in doing business and is wasting everybody's time.<br /> <br />Building has commenced and I am getting invoices. Please let me know if ABSA is interested in doing business or must I go to Nedbank as well as arrange a meeting between Nedbank Corporate and Sasol to terminate Sasol's relationship with Absa at head office level.<br /> <br /> <br />I will not accept anymore delays going forward. If this is not resolved Nedbank will accompany me to Sasol. I think its about time we get people involved who are serious about making money and doing business.</p> <p><br />I want to deal with someone at ABSA who is competent in moving this transaction forward. You have numerous other competent staff and it is about time you take Sasol and its stakeholders serious as a corporate customers. I am Meeting with Sasol to give feedback in which all these issues will be discussed.</p> <p><br />Thanks</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p>