Title: Unfair Penalty Fees and Poor Service – Africrest Properties, The Encore Apartments

My experience with Africrest Properties at The Encore Apartments started off well, but I’m extremely disappointed by how things have been handled recently.

I was issued a R150 penalty fee for an “outstanding” balance of R17.41, along with a threat to charge 2% interest and flag the payment as "partial" on my credit profile. Let’s be honest — 2% of R17.41 is around 35 cents. How does that justify a R150 late fee?

To make matters worse, I paid a R450 admin fee at the beginning of my lease specifically for Africrest to manage debit order payments. That service has never worked. I’ve had to manually pay rent every month, completely defeating the purpose of that admin fee.

Now they’re trying to charge me penalties because their own system didn’t work as agreed?

When I asked for a proper breakdown or justification, they pointed to generic lease clauses rather than addressing the specific issue at hand. This feels more like a tactic to extract extra money from tenants rather than a fair enforcement of lease terms.

I will not be paying this unjustified R150 fee, and I will escalate this further if needed. Africrest needs to take accountability for not holding up their end of the agreement.

Disappointed and frustrated by the lack of fairness and transparency.