Remax Platinum Rustenburg

On the 7th of September we signed a year contract with Remax Platinum in Rustenburg and their Client, Mr Pieter Els, to rent a town house in Waterfall Rant Estate, Safari Tuine, Rustenburg. Our agent Petronel Slabber handled the contract and we signed it with her at the Remax Rustenburg Offices. Our rent per month was R9500, and we paid a key deposit of R9500 plus Electricity Deposits etc. We stayed in the house for six months, whilst living there we fixed a lot of faults in the house and we also had to put in Security Gates etc. The owner of the house took our key deposit from Remax and stated that he was going to put it in a Trust and should we move, they will pay back the deposit of R9500 plus the interest . Things started going bad at my Husbands work and unfortunately, after six months we had to move again, he got a job in another town. I verbally communicated it with the owner of the house about 15 days before we had to move out, and I got him a new tenant, whom he didn't want. I managed to find a accredited clearance lady to take over our rental contract and she wanted to move in on the 1st of April, we moved out on the 31st of March, and we also gave back the keys on the 31st of March. The owner decided that he will decide who moves into the house, and his people could only move in end of May, holding us responsible for another months rent. (April's rent) The owner now refuses to give our key deposit back and Remax Platinum Rustenburg just accepts it...and we signed a contract with Remax Platinum Rustenburg and not with Pieter Els. A lady named Lorraine was contacted to sort this out for us. We phoned her numerous times to ask what is happening with our money and she never had answers. Remax just throws in the towl and says we should get our own lawyer and fight it out with the owner, Pieter Els. The contract we have with Remax Platinum Rustenburg clearly states that he is not allowed to keep the deposit of R9500 unless there is damage caused to the property, which there is not. In fact we did several improvements and repairs out of our own budget. Lorraine eventually phoned us back and said there is nothing she can do, we should get our own lawyer, or deal with the loss. We feel that it is Remax Platinum Rustenburg's duty to get us our money back and they just say we should sort it out ourselves. We payed Remax Rustenburg an amount of R950 to draw up the contract and they cannot even to their work properly, what was the use to rent through this Estate Agency if they cant even protect their clients?? According to our contract another tenants can take over our lease contract from us, and we should still be able to get our deposit back.