Terrible service

I purchased a property in 2020, but experienced many issues.

One of the first issues encountered was that there was a close relationship between the paralegal and the seller. While this ordinarily would not be an issue, the paralegal was not transparent in her communications in order to benefit the seller. A deposit of R500 000 was paid as part of the sale and the paralegal requested that I allow the seller to make use of the deposit to pay for her day to day living and to pay for the expenses needed to sell as she was unemployed. I was extremely hesitant and requested whether the seller could not take out a loan as surely an institution would recognise that she is about to make a sale (the otp was obviously signed at this point and would be evidence). The paralegal insisted that she's unemployed and would not be able to attain a loan. It was only later that I found out that bridging finance was an option available to the seller, but the paralegal had been dishonest and tried to play on my conscience by telling me this long story. This was the first instance where there was a lack of transparency.

Later, there was a delay in taking my matter to be lodged at the deeds office as the team tried to buy time for the seller to move into another home. Furthermore, on transfer there were mixed explanations given for why the seller needed 3 day to move out with the paralegal and estate agent repeatedly asking whether I would be willing to wait additional days.

Finally, once transfer had actually occurred and I had moved into my new home, I was notified 6 weeks in that my municipal account is in arrears by R6000 and that if the amount was not paid, my water will be switched off. When contacting the firm, I was told that the seller does not have the amount and that the fault was with the City of Cape Town for issuing a rates clearance document when all balances are not due. While I note that the City of Cape Town may or may not have made an error, it was equally the duty of both the seller and the attorney to ensure that the rates were fully paid before the matter was lodged at the deeds office. I may now have my water switched off and STBB has not made any effort to stop this other than requesting from the CoCT for the breakdown of the amount and requesting me to make a payment towards the R6000!

Incredibly frustrated and will never use the services of STBB again.