Buyer (Renter) Beware

We have had a shocking experience with this agent, and it seems we are not the only ones. To begin with, we saw an apartment that we accepted, but when it came to moving in, we were given a totally different apartment - on the second floor, not the ground floor - so a real mission to move furniture in! During the lease, they were inefficient in tending to maintenance issues, and generally unhelpful with queries, The real issue though arose when the lease came to an end. We had cleaned the apartment to a spotless condition, but were accused of dirtying the walls, leaving mould in the shower, and leaving the floor dirty. The cost of repainting and cleaning that was deducted from our deposit was usurious - for such a tiny apartment, it seemed that they needed a team to work for two days to clean it!! And it wasn't dirty!! I doubt it was painted, but the painting fee was R2000! There were also costs associated with everything - which sadly it turns out I had signed for when we signed the lease - but R570 inspection fee seems high, and R130 here and R150 there for transaction costs just seem to be a *******!! At the end of the day we lost just more than 25% of our deposit on fees and cleaning and maintenance fees. Totally unjustified!! My advice is that if you do deal with this agency, read the lease very carefully for the costs that they hide in the small print, and take as many detailed photographs as you can when you move in, becasue we didn't have anything to prove that they were lying. Also take note of the number of the apartment that you view, versus the apartment number on your lease - it seems that they regularly show one apartment, and lease another.