Pool disaster

I purchased a house in March/April 2022 from JH Malherbe through Remax. While registration was taking place I made several visits to the house and on one visit I noticed that the pool cleaner got stuck at a certain spot and would move past that spot unless it was manually moved. After a closer inspection I noticed that the surface was actually cracked and the fiberglass started lifting, causing the pool cleaner to get stuck, thus not cleaning the pool as required. I notified the real estate agent at Remax who came and also inspected the pool and saw the damage. Remax then notified the Joe Malherbe (seller) who then agreed to have it seen to. In the following days Joe Malherbe (seller) sent someone to carry out repairs. They drained all the water and stored it in a bladder. While repairs were underway I visited the house to check the progress and was actually stunned when I saw all the previous patching that was done to the fiberglass surface. They again just patched the patches and refilled the pool from the bladder. I took occupation of the house in June of 2022. Just over one year later in August 2023 I noticed the water level had rapidly dropped more than 400 mm in just a couple of days and dropped even more than half the water in less than 2 weeks. I drained the remaining half of the water and was shocked when I saw the condition of the fiberglass surface. The fiberglass had severe cracks and lifted up. I contacted my insurance company to log a claim, they sent an assessor to assess and report on the damage. A few days later the insurance company informed me that they are rejecting my claim because the damage was not caused by any natural event or disaster, but the damage was caused by a lack of maintenance. "What now" I asked myself. I tried to contact the estate agent at Remax who never responded to my call or message, so I contacted the attorney who handled the registration.. The lady advised me to get a pool specialist to come and assess the damage and do a full report on the damage and a quote to repair the damage, which I did. The pool specialist I approached has been in the pool industry for over 40 years. In the report, the pool specialist claims that the pool was poorly repaired and patched in an attempt to mislead the buyer just to get the house sold. I forwarded the report and quote to the attorney who handled the registration as the lady requested and I was told that she would forward the said report to Joe Malherbe (seller) and wait for his response.. More than a week later I contacted the lady at Jan L Jordaan to find out whether there was any response from Joe Malherbe (seller) yet. She said that Joe Malherbe (seller) was also a lawyer and his response read as follows;

1. We acknowledge receipt of your correspondence and have no instructions, thank you.

2. What you can advise whomsoever corresponding with you, is that the statement “to mislead the new owner” is outright defamation and must immediately be withdrawn, with an apology.

3. All rights are reserved to institute action for damages for no less than R2 million rand based on the unfounded and harmful statement.

Regards.

J H Malherbe Director ” Not being able to liase directly with the seller is really frustrating and the representative at Remax wasnt really helping much either. I dont know what to do now.