CAUTION - Lease agreement contents not in line with laws of SA

We were interested in renting a property which was rented out by Aula Properties. Initially we provided all the information they required to conduct a background check on both myself and my life partner. Last week I got pressed to pay a deposit telling me that other people are also interested in the property. When wanting to discuss matters with the agent in person I get asked as to why I want to discuss matters with her in person, to which my response was that I do not trust people being absolutely truthful over the phone or via email as it is an indirect means of communication and it is easier to mislead people through those means of communication. With my last visit to their offices things seemed to be very disorganized and I had to wait a long time before the agent could eventually attend to my query and give some more information that I could require. Throughout this time I was not able to get a copy of the contract. Only received the contract last week Thursday via email with incomplete information right on the first page and date of occupation indicated as 1 August 2018, whereas it was on more than one occasion reiterated that we would only take occupation as from the last week in August as I want to clean the place myself and thereafter move in. I was even advised that we will only be required to pay a pro rata amount of rent for the time that we will be occupying the premises. Both myself and my life partner took the lease contract to two independent attorneys employed at two different companies (of which one specializes in contracts) for their perusal and consideration of the lease agreement where after we were advised that there is various points in the contract that is not in line with the laws of South Africa, specifically with the PIE Act. When I brought this up and showed the agent and her manager the contract with the attorneys' notes they told me that they do not know where I got this information from but that there is nothing wrong with their contracts, that they have never experienced any difficulties with their contracts up to so far and that they are quite certain that the owner of the property in question is not going to agree to the amendment of the contract etc. Thereafter it was summarily decided by the agent and her manager that they will cancel the whole deal as no amendments will be done to the contract. I was also told that they are going to deduct an admin fee and a contract fee from my deposit which I have already paid last week, to which I disagreed and demanded that every cent of my money be refunded as they did nothing to assist me in any way whatsoever but only as to leave with no place to stay by the end of August should I not find an alternative place before end of August, as I have already given notice where I am currently staying. After the meeting the manager was the first person to "disappear" without so much of a word of how to resolve the refund of my deposit etc. Upon me leaving their offices I was called back and told that they want the contract back, to which I responded by asking as to why they would want the contract back as it is full of comments and notes and things scratched out etc by the two independent attorneys. The agent, clearly annoyed by my refusal, turned around and mumbled something which I could not make out. However, later today I heard from strangers that they also had terrible experiences with these people and even cautioned me from doing business with these people in future. So people be wake-up and be cautioned about just signing any contract with these people unless you have cleared the contents thereof with an attorney who can advise you properly on the way forward.