OVER PROMISE AND UNDER DELIVER... HARCOURTS ALPHA; PAY BACK MY MONEY - ALL OF IT!!!

<p>So in November 2016, I saw an ad on one of the property websites for a house available to rent in Rowallan Park, in the pics the house had a nice and bright sparkling pool and also stated in the ad itself that “SPARKLING BLUE POOL, JUST IN TIME FOR SUMMER” upon visiting the house, we were shocked that the house looked nothing like the pictures posted on the ad. We were met by Denton Henning; the principal of Harcourt’s Alpha who told us that the tenants that lived in the house had practically destroyed the house and of course made promises to fix the house should we decide to take the rental. We told him there and then, that we would take the house on the basis that my daughter had recently started swimming and would enjoy the practice in our own pool. He told us that he needed just two days to fix the house, a wendy house (we needed this for our live in domestic helper) and the pool.</p> <p>On November 18 2016, we paid a sum of R10 000 into Harcourt’s Bank account as the deposit. We were told that the tenants would move out by end November and a couple of days later, we would be able to move in. On the first week of December (not entirely sure of exact date), we drove past the house and found two gentlemen busy with painting the interior walls, we inspected the rest of the house and concluded that there was no way they could finish all the promises made to us in two days so we decided to stay a bit longer where we were staying to give them time to finish all the renovations.</p> <p> On the 16th December 2016 I sent Denton a message to express my disappointment in how the whole matter was being handled and that I was supposed to move in by 1 December but did not receive the keys or an indication on the date the house would be ready for us to move in. He called me later that morning to arrange a meeting and to hand over the keys. When we got to the house, the pool was NOT Fixed, in fact it had a frog swimming in it, together with pieces of *******…. The Wendy house, which we were promised was going to get a revamp – he was going to take out the whole front wooden wall and replace with bricks and also fix the plumbing so that bathroom could work…. This was also not done. When we enquired he said we could move in in the interim, he would meet with the owner the following day at the house to give him a few quotations for him to choose from. He asked us when we would move in; we told him that we would move in on Monday the 19th as we were on our way to Alice that day. He asked to keep the keys with him until Monday; he was to drop these off with in Newton Park, as we lived close to his office. We agreed… needless to say…., this was never done.</p> <p>My husband and I were both concerned about dealing with this agent (imagine if something would go wrong while living there… who would fix it? He has proven himself unreliable); I then called Denton on the 20th December 2016 to cancel the agreement. He said he couldn’t talk at the moment and would call me back later to discuss…. NO Phone call again! He found new tenants and they moved in on January 7, 2017…..</p> <p>I called him a couple of days later to ask about my refund, he told me that he would do a recon and mail me a statement…… nothing to date….</p> <p>My husband has been visiting his office regularly to get an update on our refund and every time Denton would promise to make the transfer before the end of the day….. NOTHING.</p> <p>Again, this morning, 1 February 2017 my husband went to his office and spoke to Candace (she dealt with our admin in the transaction) and she promised to speak to Denton to make the transfer…. Tonight I have just received a bank notification of R4170.56 as refund.</p> <p>My question to you Denton Henning, how did you calculate this amount? So all your no good promises have actually cost me R5829.44???? That is excluding the interest for keeping my money since November 2016!</p> <p>I would like to find out from Harcourt’s Head office if this is standard business practice and do you think that this was fair?</p>