Natalie H

Harcourts Amanzimtoti - Edna Venter

Edna Venter at Harcourts Amanzimtoti made the 6 months that we dealt with this agency an ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE! She is completely incompetent of doing her job. Not once did she come and inspect the property, not even when the microwave or stove had to be replaced (both stopped working within a month of each other). The electrician that she sent out to the house, came and removed the microwave and worked on a plug in the kitchen, leaving it open and hanging out of the socket for 2 weeks! When I eventually asked what is going on, as he never returned, she proceeded to tell me that she had find out the electrician was not qualified and was busy looking for someone else... what Agency sends an UNQUALIFIED electrician out to a rental house?? Surely they have a database to go through to find the right person? A few months later, the geyser burst... she proceeded to send 4 young guys out to the house to fix it whom I doubt were qualified. They had to return 3 times, and on the second attempt to empty ut the geyser, they left the plug in the bathroom basin and proceeded to open that tap. causing the entire bathroom, passage and one of the bedrooms to be under water. The first time they came out, they stepped a hole through the ceiling in my daughter's bedroom. Edna proceeded to tell me that the owner will not fix this until we have moved out (we had given notice by then - cutting the 1 year lease that we had through her in half, at 6 months, because we just couldn't live like that anymore. When we went to view the house, we noticed the For Sale sign and queried this as we did not want to have to move again soon. She promised us that the owner had said to her that if she is happy with the tenants, she will take the house off the market. We decided on this principal, to move in and prove that we will be good tenants, hoping to buy the house eventually after a year. Less than a week after moving in, another Harcourts agent started to bring clients to view the house, after about a month of having constant interruptions with people coming to view, I asked the agent to please give us chance to prove that we are good tenants and leave us alone for a while, I agreed to have them bring clients over every second Saturday between 10am and 2pm. Our rent was always paid days before the due date but they were not giving us chance to prove we are good tenants with pushing for a sale so badly! It was becoming unbearable. After the very first clients were brought in to view by Yolandi from Harcourts, Edna phoned me and LIED telling me that those people had put in an offer and we had to hurry to get our offer in, if we didn't want to loose the house. We were not even in for a month yet. When my husband called Yolandi, she said that we should relax as there was no offer put in! Proving Edna had lied, hoping we would get our things in order, as if we bought the house, being her tenants, the sale would go through her! After we gave notice, things got really ugly! We refused to pay rent as the hole in the ceiling was still there and we could not use that bedroom. There was a clause in the contract stating that if there was a room or space in the house that could not be used that we could discuss a deduction in the rental while the repairs were being done. When I asked them to do this and let me know how much rent i must then pay for the last month, they told me that the owner is only going to fix the ceiling once we are out. I therefore refused to pay and told Edna to use our deposit to cover that months rent when we leave. She tried to tell me that she will not do this and that the owner had said she will proceed to send squatters to move in with us during the last month, if we do not pay! She continued forwarding me all the messages from the owner and all my messages to the owner, she did absolutely nothing to try and keep the peace and created absolute discomfort between us and the owner. At the end of the day, the owner sent an email to Harcourts (I was cc'd in) telling Edna that she is incompetent. I was happy to hear we were not the only ones who thought so. Clearly Edna is not doing her job properly and her liaising between owner and tenant leaves much to be desired! So happy to say we made it out of 6 motnhs' HELL alive!