Owners refusing to pay back the deposit

It has now been two weeks since the tenancy finished and the fact that the agent Live Real Estate and or landlord still retain R130,000 deposit is appalling. That money being essential to be able to move into the new home. Worse, we have not even had the courtesy of a response to our very detailed and professional letter demanding the refund of our deposit in light of their very clear intention to misuse it

we do not even know who holds our deposit and where!!!

Is it the owner. Is it the agent Live Real Estates. Is it Airbnb the platform where we saw the property advertised and where we rented it through. Before the landlord and agent pushed us off of that platform to do a direct let with them.

We do not even know if it has been held in a separate interest bearing client account as prescribed by law. We do not know whether the owner or the agent Live Real Estates has already started dipping into the deposit, something they clearly intended on doing

Llive Real Estate has not had the courtesy to respond to the letter formally complaining about the appalling way in which we were treated at the checkout including forcing us to leave hours earlier than necessary or legally required, throwing our stuff into ******* bags and the ******* bags onto the street, forcing us to pack the bags into boxes on the streets

And this despite paying all of the rent in advance. Over 300,000 on rent for the few months that we were there

During which time we had to put up with a long long list of unpleasant or unprofessional issues

Including Live Real Estates miss-selling the property to us in the first place by telling us the backyard was included within the property and available for our exclusive use whether that be for the dogs doing their doodoo, for smoking or whatever. Only to find out part way into the lease that was in fact a lie. Causing no end of problems as that turned the property with outside space into one with none at all

Not the slightest concern from Live Real Estates that the property was below the legal temperature permitted for human occupation on a number of ocassions. Instead trying to use any possible excuse to bill us for a full redecoration of the entire property despite the fact that it had not been decorated in years and it desperately needed to be

It was very clear some days before the end of the tenancy when the landlord and Live Real Estate blocked out their Airbnb diary for the days immediately following the end of our tenancy that they intended already on having the property decorated and using our substantial deposit as a way of funding it.

They even cancelled the following weeks bedding service, meaning they knew in advance of the check out that there were going to be no guests, that they planned specifically to have no guests and the property would be unoccupied. Yet the diary was blocked out

On a number pf occasions when we asked the housekeeper if the property had been decorated since he stated there and he had said no that meant it had been maybe 10 years since eth last occasion. Even a couple of years na pretty with guest mbingf on nd out every few days every month of the year will need very regular decorating. That is for the landlord to fund. Ie, From the more than a million Rand a year in rent received

The fact any supposedly professional agency would be a party to what is effectively theft is shocking

That two of its employees would be part of such ********* and unprofessional conduct as witnessed at the checkout itself is even more astonishing.

Laughing, belittling, scalding, bullying. Taking great pleasure in the imbalance of power and of humiliating the cleaning team and tenant

To refuse a tenant who had been in occupation for a number of months and who had paid a third of a million in rent and housekeeping, the last few of their tenancy is appalling. Demanding the cleaners stop cleaning then criticizing the tenant for it not being finished. To physically force them out of the property is even more appalling. To throw their personal items carelessly into bags jumbling expensive suits with cleaning cloths full of bleach and then throwing those bags onto the street,,, as well as shouting at, mocking, bullying those present and one can only assume intentionally humiliating everybody involved

This is ********* and not the conduct of a professional agency

The fact that the cleaning team felt so victimized, discriminated against and bul**** that they suggested to each other to film the situation says much in itself