******* Transactions At Ithemba Property

My deposit has been used *******ly by Ithemba Property to pay for rent when I haven't officially moved in yet. Moreover, this action of using half my deposit to pay for rent was never indicated in my lease when I was asked to pay a double deposit.

I have a lease with Ithemba Property that begins on the 1st of November 2021. I was told by an Ithemba agent that since I am self-employed I cannot submit a 3 month bank statement, but a 6 month bank statement was needed. In viewing my 6 month bank statement, they calculated risks in me being able to pay rent and requested to register me as a vendor, this would require me to pay a double deposit. I did so gladly as they confirmed to me that it would stay as a deposit which I would receive back when I eventually move out. On the lease however, it did not indicate that I was registered as a vendor, but my deposit was exactly as I had been quoted and it was the exact amount I had paid. So I comfortably signed the lease as is.

Now before moving in the flat, I needed the wifi fibre to be activated because I work from home and constantly have to be online. I have free wifi where I currently stay, so moving to a place without wifi was not logical. Also to my understanding of the lease, if a tenant is unable to move in because of faults in the building, that tenant does not pay for those days. So I waited patiently for the fibre to be activated before moving in, of which it has still not been activated due to internal issues at Ithemba Property.

While waiting, I receive an invoice showing that part of my deposit has now been used as a "brought forward" amount to pay for December's rent, but I still have not moved in. My signed lease contract says nothing about half of my deposit being an advanced rent payment. The lease indicates that my deposit is kept in an investment account where it collects interest. Clearly this is not the case. Ithemba Property is in breach of their contract and is moving my deposit around *******ly to pay for rent which they shouldn't be doing even if I had moved in and was officially living there. This is just not done. I have not indicated any failure to pay rent for the landlord to now reach into my deposit and furthermore, I haven't even moved in yet. I'm still waiting for the fibre to be activated and I haven't even spent one night nor taken a shower there. The water rates on the invoice also clearly show I have not made use of the flat.

I have written an email attaching this invoice and signed lease to *** with others on cc, such as *** and *** - I have received no response and the building manager seems to be throwing me under the bus right now, giving me no assistance at all.

In closing, I do have the keys to the flat. I bought electricity there so the fibre box could be switched on. Recently I ordered a few things like a curtain and kettle from Takealot and kept them in the flat for when I move in, now that is being used against me and the building manager says that I look like someone who has already moved in if there are curtains in the flat. These curtains haven't been put up, they are sitting in the cupboard. Plus this delivery had spent the night with security downstairs and I had to come and put it away before it would be counted as negligence. Storage is the only thing I should be charged for at this point, not a full month's rent and certainly not *******ly taken from my deposit.