Africrest: Mismanagement of admin, mismanagement of security, mismanagement of your residence

I write regarding my girlfriend’s deeply distressing experience as a tenant at The Encore, a property managed by Africrest Properties. While isolated issues may occur in any residential complex, the pattern of failures she experienced, relating to security, administration, communication, and privacy, has been extremely concerning.

The first and perhaps most alarming issue relates to security at The Encore.

During visits to her apartment, I repeatedly observed serious lapses in access control. On numerous occasions, security personnel would simply open the gate after I stated the unit number, often remarking that they had “seen me before,” without confirming with the resident whether I was an authorised visitor. In fact, I frequently had to insist that security contact her directly to verify permission for entry. While I was welcome, the concern was obvious: if security were willing to allow me access without proper checks, they were equally willing to permit access to anyone else.

Unfortunately, those concerns ultimately materialised. An individual who posed a threat to her and should not have gained access to the property was able to enter due to these inadequate security measures. This incident had severe personal repercussions for her and caused considerable emotional distress, distress that could reasonably have been avoided had proper security procedures been followed.

Despite assurances that these concerns had been addressed, many months later I personally witnessed the same negligent practices continuing, with visitors still being granted access without proper verification, particularly when the code-generation system was reportedly offline.

Regrettably, security failures were not the only issue.

My girlfriend provided sufficient advance notice of her intention to vacate the premises before the expiry of her lease. However, despite this notice, she was later informed that her debit order had not been cancelled due to an internal administrative oversight and that she would need to resolve the matter herself.

To Africrest’s credit, they initially appeared to address the issue by reimbursing her directly for the amount debited. However, it later emerged that her bank had also successfully reversed the debit order, a fact of which she was entirely unaware at the time. As a result, it is entirely possible that money was legitimately owed back to Africrest. The issue is not the repayment itself, but rather the manner in which the matter was handled.

At no stage did Africrest contact her directly to explain the situation or request repayment. No formal communication was sent. No notice was given. No reasonable opportunity was provided to resolve what appears to have been a genuine misunderstanding.

Instead, Africrest contacted her emergency contact, alleging that she was unresponsive, despite never having properly notified her of the issue in the first place. More concerningly, personal and financial information relating to the matter was allegedly disclosed to an individual she had not consented to involve in her private affairs. This constituted a serious invasion of privacy and caused her significant additional distress.

To compound matters further, the issue was escalated to the Rental Housing Tribunal before any reasonable attempt had been made to engage with her directly regarding repayment.

To be clear, the concern here is not whether money may ultimately have been owed back. Had Africrest communicated the situation appropriately, it could almost certainly have been resolved quickly and amicably. The issue is that escalation, third-party disclosure, and formal proceedings appear to have taken place without prior direct engagement or notice.

The conduct of the representative handling the matter, Mr Sizwe Nyandeni, has only added to the frustration. No apology has been offered for either the handling of the matter or the privacy concerns raised, and correspondence appears to selectively ignore material concerns raised in my girlfriend’s emails.

To summarise:

* Inadequate security procedures repeatedly allowed unauthorised or insufficiently verified access to the premises. * Administrative failures resulted in the mishandling of her lease termination and debit order cancellation. * A repayment issue, arising in part from a bank reversal she was unaware of, was escalated without reasonable prior communication. * Sensitive personal information was allegedly disclosed to an emergency contact without consent. * Formal escalation to the Rental Housing Tribunal occurred without proper notice or a meaningful attempt to resolve the matter directly.

This pattern of conduct is deeply disappointing and, in our view, entirely unacceptable for a professional property management company entrusted with tenants’ safety, personal information, and wellbeing.