RAWSON PROPERTIES A TOTAL SHAME

I’m writing this after a very stressful and chaotic weekend. I found an apartment on private property (Rawson property) for occupation on 1 December which I app**** for and after I was approved I signed the lease and submitted it. I then paid 2 months’ rent as a deposit and the first month’s rent, along with other charges and fees that were on the lease on 28 November 2019. The payments were pay and clear payments and proof of payments were also sent to Zelda. On Friday 29 November 2019 i requested feedback from Zelda on what time we could collect the keys on Sunday and whether a move in form had been prepared. ( I have all the chats with me to back this up). After numerous calls which she ignored and didn’t return and WhatsApp messages that she would read and not respond to or respond after several house while she’s online , she finally told me that she was waiting for the landlord to sign the lease and she couldn’t get hold of him as he was in meetings all day. She had also assured me that she had prepared the move in form for Sunday and would communicate the time we would need to arrive at the Polofields to move in. On Saturday 30 November I had to be the one calling Zelda and sending her numerous WhatsApp’s to find out about the time we had to get to the complex to move in. She reassured me all was on track and that the landlord had requested for me to go to the bank on the Sunday to set up a debit order for payment to be made into his account. I told her this would not be possible as a debit order mandate has to be sent from the company to the payer’s bank requesting to debit the bank account. This cannot be done for an individual’s account. I offered an alternative option which is a scheduled payment which works similarly to a debit order. I sent through confirmation of the scheduled payment being set up to Zelda ‪on Saturday afternoon‬. On the day we were meant to move in (Sunday 1 December) I called Zelda numerous times and she never answered any of my calls or returned them. I eventually had to call her colleague Derick and explained what was happening and he suggested I called their manager Nirvan. I then called Nirvan and explained that Zelda has not been answering my calls or responding to messages sent to her. This was all happening as we were driving with the moving truck to the Polofields. Zelda called me back after I spoke to Nirven and said that the landlord needs to set up a debit order and confirm if I truly work at Investec. She said this would take a few days and we’d only be able to move in during the course of this week. I told her this should have been done PRIOR to the move in date as I had a truck load full of my things waiting at the gate of the Polofields. Zelda was nowhere to be found and offered no alternative solution as we were basically homeless. Nirven then offered for us to stay in a townshouse at Riverbend as this was the only alternative they had at the time. I refused as this townhouse was R18000 monthly (compared to the R16500 I would pay at Polofields) and this was an amount I could not afford. I then requested for a refund of the R51800 I sent to Rawson as I had to make alternative arrangements while in the street with my 2 year old daughter in the hot Joburg sun. I had to drive around the whole of Midrand on a ‪Sunday afternoon‬ looking for a storage company that was open. I eventually found one and had to pay R1130 for the storage. During all this chaos I had to rush my daughter to Waterfall hospital due to the stress we were putting her through that day. To date I’ve spent R3600 on hotel accommodation as I’m still urgently waiting for my refund from Rawson which when I ask when am I getting my refund I get ignored so I’ll be taking this up with the rental tribunal. I’m really disappointed that Rawson properties treated us like second class citizens and put my family and I through so much stress.