If you want to lose money, let Crystal Capital Investments at Belvedere Square be your landlord

This is a review of the rented apartments as a warning to potential residential tenants at Belvedere Square (landlords of the centre and residential units are Crystal Capital Investments), we enjoyed all the stores housed in the square and have no complaints with them.

We rented one of the apartments (A8) above the square for just over a year. We would not recommend renting here. It wasn’t the fact that we reported problems we experienced in the flat and received no response from the landlord or property managers for upward of 10 months. That we could look past, even though parts of the bathroom were in a state of disrepair.

It was that the parking situation was untenable as residential tenants. Before we signed the lease we were assured by the person who works for Crystal Capital Investments (the landlords and owners of Belvedere Square) that Ranelagh Road was zoned for residential parking and that there would never be an issue finding residential tenant parking. Well we were fooled, as I’m sure this person was well aware, as although Ranelagh Road is zoned for residential parking the centre allows retail shoppers to park in the residential parking and so during busy times it was often impossible to find parking at our home. They are also very careful to put in the lease that you are not permitted to park within the centre so as residential tenants we were frequently in the frustrating situation of not being able to find parking at our apartment. When we attempted to reasonably resolve the issue with the landlord they made it very clear that although they were aware of the parking violations they would never do anything to rectify the problem and that as tenants (who had been assured parking was no issue) we must either deal with it or leave. So we decided to leave, because it really was that bad.

Our dealings with this landlord have only got worse since our lease ended. In spite of us paying the first six months rent upfront, and then paying our rent on time throughout the duration of our lease and leaving the apartment in the state we entered it, fair wear and tear aside, they have not returned our deposit even though by law they are required to have returned it by this stage. They have used a significant chunk of our deposit to pay for painting the whole of the apartment, even though this is unnecessary and there is nothing wrong with the paint, above fair wear and tear. What’s more, the quote they got to repaint the 60 square metre apartment was around R10k, half of our deposit, which is just outrageous. We know this is outrageous because we have just paid R4500k including paint to paint the entirety of our new place (100 square metres), the paint of which was in far worse condition than the apartment we left at Belvedere Square. It seems strange, but not surprising that the amount they are trying to deduct from our deposit is almost the same amount as our monthly rent was. The more cynical among us might question if they’re not trying to eek out another month’s rent having failed to find replacement tenants.

On top of all this, Crystal Capital Investments (our landlord ) and Broll (the agents who manage the property) play this this fun game of ping pong where they keep shifting responsibility to the other party so it is almost impossible to get an answer from someone.

In sum, the apartment is liveable and conveniently located but not worth the R10k/month that we were paying to rent it (yes they accepted this willingly even though it is advertised for far more), without reliable parking and with non-existent recourse if one is to experience any issues. I wouldn’t rent there again if I had a do-over.