Stay away from Harcourts

Had a bad experience with Harcourts Midrand, they are suppose to be managing agents and they take 8% commission every month to manage your rental property. For them to place a tenant in your property they also charge a finders fee and charge the tenant a placement fee, it's a very lucrative arrangement for the company. However there is no protection for the landlord and when the tenant(who they placed in your property) is a bad payer you as the the property owner are on your own. My bad experience started last year when the tenant was regularly late in paying her rent and I would have to call the agent and ask when the agent was expecting the rent to be paid. The tenant skipped a month here and there all along I had to contact the agent and ask what was happening. Not once was the agent proactive and contact me before I called in. Half the time the agent would make lousy excuses that her cellphone does not work and so on. Eventually I asked the agent to tell the agent to vacate my property which she did however I'm left with unpaid rent amounting to R16600 and Harcourts is not interested in recouping this amount and let alone blacklist the tenant as they have to wait for three consecutive months of non payment. On collection of my key from the agent she only gave me one set and when I told her that I gave her two sets, she said she will contact the tenant and revert back to me. I'm still waiting for that call. I now have to resolve to expensive debt collection firms to recoup the rental money due to me. I would advise anyone to stay away from Harcourts unless you want to lose money and time.