Disastrous service after home sale

R&R Estate Agents and CWN Incorporated review - DISASTROUS

We smile reading reviews on R&R in Howick, since our experience with them has been singularly unsatisfactory. In October 2022 we took our Amber Ridge home off the market, but Renata Milanesi from R&R phoned me in Cape Town to say she had found us a cash buyer. I mentioned that we had not decided on commission, Renata insisted that she took 5% commission plus VAT. This despite the fact that Bev Bray had months earlier come to discuss listing our house when I was abroad. My partner told her that the commission needed to be discussed and decided upon with myself. The commission was left blank in the Sales Agreement, which Renata confidently told me later she had never looked at, and that the commission conversation was over. Commissions at the time ranged from 3 to 3,5%, with some agents waiving the VAT. It turns out that Renata never found us a cash buyer. She had taken her clients to St John's, clearly her first choice, but that sale fell through and Renata deigned it time perhaps to show her clients our home in Amber Ridge. The clients loved our home and decided to buy it. We felt quite overwhelmed at the speed of transaction, and Renata saying that she would get Marco Whalley to act as Conveyancer, who happens to be her son. We we were asked if we had any objection, we said no. Marco at CWN Incorporated in Pietermaritzburg has Saras Naidoo as his PA. Pleasant, but clearly punching way above her weight, we consistently received emails from Saras with the incorrect asking price, incorrect address and incorrect estate name mentioned. Too much copy and paste, I believe. In a meeting at our home, signing documents with Renata Milanesi and Rosemary Wakelin, when Renata said she had never looked at our Sales Agreement and the commission conversation was over, she mentioned that R&R's gift to the buyer was to have our home professionally cleaned, at R&R expense. Two weeks later Rosemary contacts us to say she was putting us in touch with the cleaning company to agree on a quote. I immediately challenged this, and Renata agreed I was correct. Bev Bray then contacted us to enquire about the universal wall paint colour used in our home. I very nearly asked what R&R were doing for their 5% commission, and should be calling the Body Corporate themselves? All this before the matter of RATES. At the time of transfer (end of November 2022), we had 4 months rate credit with Umgeni Municipality. Marco Whalley then deducted 3 months rates from the sale proceeds we were paid. Our 4 months rates credit went to rates accounts for October/November/December and January. Quite where Marco's deductions towards rates went we are unsure, although the Municipality refunded us one month's rates. Nola Gloss, Umgeni Rates Clerk tells us we are due to pay rates for 3 months post-transfer, yet Marco Whalley informs us our rates obligations end upon transfer date. In May 2023, 6 months after transfer, we get a rates bill for 4 months from Umgeni Municipality. No word nor explanation from any of the parties responsible, nor any credits thus far? You couldn't make this up. Our neighbours sold their home through Cindy Bro in January 2023, conveyancing done by Leslie Smith Attorneys. Letter of Termination of Rates upon transfer, and seller has been credited the 3 months rates they had in credit at time of transfer. Anyone planning to use R&R or CWN Incorporated, proceed at your peril. Rob Caskie