A very unfair and ill treating estate agency which is trying to short change me

<p>I rented a property at 2 La Toscana in Amorosa for a 12 months period at R9350 p.m from 1 June 2015 to 31 May 2016. It was first done for 6 months which was extended for another 6 months as I had intended from the onset to have a collective 12 months lease only. I indicated that I didn't intend to renew the said lease because I am building a house elsewhere (i.e. in Northcliff) and besides that the house that I moved when I arrived in Amorosa was not up to the high standard that I am used to compared to the house that I owned and lived in before e.g. to start with that yard was not landscaped, the carpets were very dirty and to make it worse they got me to commit by saying that they were going to replace the dirty carpets with laminates but this didn't happen either. The reason for the latter undertaking was that even though the professional cleaners tried to clean same but there were still many visible black stain marks afterwards, and I gave them pictures thereof. There were other problems like a stove which was fire risk because the oven would automatically switch itself on and the geyser malfunctioned because the hot water would finish after one person bathing and the water would run on its own. The biggest frustration with the gesyer is that it meant that in a family like mine, if I bathed first, those who bathed after me (i.e. kids) there would only be cold water. I reported this anomaly on numerous occasions to them and in terms of the carpets, they undertook to change them and put lamiates as alluded above but this promise never materialised and for the duration of the 12 months, I stayed in a house that was embarrassingly dirty in all 3 bedrooms.</p> <p>The main crux of my complaint here is that whereas I gave the estate agent a 3 months rental deposit of R28050 of which I transferred a total of R30050 because this included an electricity deposit of R2000, they have delayed beyond the undertaken 7 days within which they were meant to refund it. To my surprise, they said that I must clean the carpets and yet those carpets were already dirty whereas the initial inspection report captured it as such and it was included in my snag list of stuff that were never sorted. The other frustration is that they kept on charging me an internet fee R1.50 and a statement download fee of R495 amongst other charges which were never agreed to and /or brought to my attention that they would be included at the outset as such I disputed these amounts. In terms of the lease, I was not their main client as such if they needed to charge someone for accessing the internet or getting a statement, which in any even doesn't even cost that much from the bank they should have charged the lessor for whom they were doing work. I therefore disputed this and to this date, I refuse to pay for any internet access fees or statement download fees for that matter because those fees were never agreed to nor did I sign anything to consent to it at the outset. Whenever I paid my rental, I always excluded those above charges, something which I always pointed out and notified them about in that those charges were not for my account. I therefore also wrote to TPN, the credit bureau as and when I received their notifications which claimed that I was in arrears. I sent them all the proof of my rental payments in order to query the supposed arrears of which I also told them (i.e. TPN) that those technical arrears emanated from the afore mentioned fees which were being passed onto me whereas I was not liable to pay same hence I disputed same. I told them (TPN) that this was because whenever I made a payment, I would send them (i.e. Rent-a-Property) all proof of payments hence no statements needed to be downloaded but in any event it is unheard of to then charge a tenant a fee to download a bank statement 'cause that has nothing to do with them (or me in this instance - I mean, when and how they download their statements or access the internet is not my problem).</p> <p>Anyhow, in April 2016 I wrote to the estate agent's rental department and requested that they come through to inspect the property early so that at least 2 months of my rental deposit (i.e. R18700) would be released or at least that it would be done in time as the lease was meant to end in May because I wanted to use it elsewhere since the building of my house is pregressing slower than I had anticipated. In truth, I reasoned, they only needed 1 month's deposit which is the norm but when I paid the deposit, I had insisted that a guarantee be made that they would retund my deposit and they undertook to do it within 7 days. The responses from Angela though made me suspicious in that she was being evasive because the estate agents didn't intend to refund my deposit to start with despite their undertaking. I know by now that these ************ estate agents tend to come up with all sorts of excuses and delaying tactics whenever they need to refund a tenant's deposit. They didn't do so in my case either and the only response that I received was that they were going to send my correspondence to the lessor, but no response ever came through until the lease ended. In the midst of that, I had indicated in March that I was doing a lawsuit elsewhere at the South Gauteng High Court, hence my cashflow was being hamstrung by all the Advocate's fees and I suspected they thought that I was too cashstrapped to take them to task about my deposit and seek legal recourse or find institutions which can help me to recoup my withheld deposit. I then indicated that I was in a position to pay the May rental but because I was funding that court case, I requested that they wait for me to take a contempt of court matter and thereafter pay the May rental. I then reasoned with them that since they in any event held R30050 of my money, that should not pose any risk of default, which it didn't and still doesn't. What happened instead is that they cut the power on the 10th May, and Angela instead said that the lessor was terminating the lease.</p> <p>I immediately wrote back to her and said that the lease was in any event coming to an end and that I had not in any previous correspondence indicated nor displayed a wish to have it extended or ever said that I was going to extend it beyond 12 months because from the onset, I only needed the house for 12 months. This decision to cut electricity inadvertedly forced me out of the house because I live with my family and I needed electricity in order to prepare for the court case, have food in our fridge and have my kids bath in hot water and be able to switch on the heater as winter was starting to be very cold in May. I consequently checked into a hotel so that I could have hot water, be able to switch on a heater, keep our food in the fridge and electricity something that was no longer possible. I wrote to them to notify them about my decision because the house was no longer liveable and in one of the conditions that I had set, I had stipulated that the house should be liveable in order for me to occupy same. What I started suspecting is that the estate agent wanted me to pay the May rental and still keep my R30050 but instead I said that I would pay the May rental only if my deposit was refunded. I had already gathered by April that they wanted to do the above even though if one takes into account the May rental and whatever disputed charges, they would owe me R20000 in the combined rental and electricity deposit. When the inspection was done on the 31st May, it showed that the house was afterall well looked after except that the lady who inspected it wrote that the carpets were dirty. I shared pictures of those carpets with Angela and I told her that I had also sent those pictures back in June 2015 to Chareze, Estie, Elsie, Michelle, Beulah and Poppie all of whom I dealt with at the outset and who I sent all the snag list too.</p> <p>The Rental Manager (Angela Woodridge) was very arrogant and dismissive of my request for her to check with her colleagues because she was saying that I must clean the carpets to which I responded that I can't be expected to clean the carpets which I found dirty. She didn't respond to my query in terms of why they switched off the electricity and instead she responded with a very condescending attitude and ridiculed me in that I didn't pay the May rental but I had money to stay in a hotel. I wrote back and advised that she was the last person to question whether or not I had money because I had sent her a bank statement showing that we had over R**** in our business account and I went on to say that it was not a secret that I could afford to stay in a hotel.</p> <p>I have attempted to speak to their Principal Estate Agent (Sasha Koen) who I went to see and set an appointment with but her PA referred me to someone else (another Manager) who I am not undermining but I view this as a delaying tactic because she must surely be conversant with my matter. I did this because I also intend to escalate this complaint to the National Consumer Commission and the Estate Agency Affairs Board. As someone who is self employed, I work hard for my money and thus I take strong exception to such bully tactics or any attempt to short change me or try to keep my money without a valid reason.</p>