ONLY REALTY - THE ESTATE AGENTS FROM HELL

Only Realty are the estate agents from hell. If you are considering renting a property administered by them, I suggest you seriously reconsider, because your life will be a misery from the day you sign the 72 page lease.

The only timeous communication you will receive from them is if you owe, or they think you owe, them money. They will then charge you R20 per sms, telling you to pay immediately.

If there is any maintenance to be done, they will say report it on the website and then they will do nothing. It took me a month to get my living room lights fixed and over 4 months to get a garage door motor fixed.

The deposit they view as the landlord's nest egg to use up with whatever maintenance the landlord feels like doing, when you leave. There is no allowance for the fact that the house may have been lived in for a year or more. I had to pay for the entire interior of the house to be re-painted because I hung 10 pictures. There was not a single picture hook in the house, when I moved in.

Also I received 3 invoices for this 'work' each with a different amount, ranging from R4000 to R2500. The contractor, JDR Services, has charged me R54 to change a light bulb and R385 to replace a small pane of glass ( excluding labour). I had bought the glass that morning from builder's warehouse and the glass and putty cost me less than R50. I left the pane and putty in the house, because after I received the invoice, I lost interest in doing anything more to the house.

Even though there is still a small balance owed to me from my R15 000 deposit, three weeks after I have moved out and the final inspection done, I have still not received A CENT of my deposit from Only Realty.

In short, Only Realty has a well developed corporate culture, which views the tenant as a necessary evil, only to be milked for anything and everything possible, but the tenant's needs are not their concern.