‘Legal’ theft.

This review is on behalf of my husband Brett Thomas.

We are South African residents living abroad so easy to be taken advantage of. Signed OTP for a development property. EVERY single document was signed electronically which is not binding. Not once was ink put to paper. Obtained a bond offer from Standard Bank. These documents too, were signed electronically. We were even informed by the transferring attorneys (ESI Law) that the bank would not accept electronic signatures. We were advised to give my mother POA who would be signing the documents ON our BEHALF instead of having the documents couriered to us. These documents were NEVER sent, and never signed. A short while after receiving Standard Banks bond quote, my salary changed significantly. Contacted STD BANK several times to do the right thing by not taking out a loan that we could NOT afford. The bond quote STATES that the offer can change of your financial situation changes. IT DID!!! The bank REFUSES to cancel our bond offer. This is RECKLESS LENDING. The bank could not even get my bank account card to me. I mean, really??? So I don’t own a card for the account that no longer even exists yet there is a supposed bond in my name that cannot be cancelled by STANDARD BANK unless AUTHORISED by the transferring attorneys. What a load of *******. The financial implications wild fall upon the bank yet they cannot dictate who gets what. The transferring attorneys refuse to return our deposit due to this fact. They are suing us for LOSS and WASTAGE!!!! One year on, the house has still not been built. They refuse to give us our R50,000 deposit plus interest back after communicating our affordability change. NO monies were paid over by the bank. The property has since been SOLD so how can there be two bonds for one property? This is ********!!