So devious and *****!

Well, here we are. We become the latest victims of Smile Property Group's mismanagement and devious business ethics. We rented a property through Smile Property Group for 3 years. Ursula, the agent, was great but that's where it stops. When we moved in 3 years ago, the townhouse was dirty, kitchen cupboards were broken, tiles were broken or cracked, the oven door didn't close, walls were dirty and full of kokie marks, lights weren't working, not all the doors had a key, the balustrades were dirty and even broken, garage door didn't lock and the backdoor security gate also didn't lock as the key was broken and never replaced. We obviously took photos of everything and sent it to the agent for record purposes. We made a full and comprehensive list of things that needed attention which were just blatantly ignored. Eventually after a few months, they came and fixed and painted the balutrades and fixed a leaking toilet and that was it. Every year we had to sign a contract extension and the rental amount and deposit increased which was understandable but when we brought up the maintenance, it was ignored. This went on for 3 years. After making threats of doing the maintenance ourselves and deducting it from the rent, they finally sent someone in January 2025 to tile the kitchen, replace a light, fix the garage door and fix the backdoor security gate. Again, that was it. Not too mention that their selected contractor damaged our personal property because they decided to cut tiles inside the kitchen instead of outside and also broke out the existing tiles without at least covering any of our property with tarps. Eventually we decided to move out at the end of April 2025 due to relocation. We were informed that the deposit would become payable after 14 working days of the post-occupation inspection taking place and us moving out. Now this is where the fun starts... A month after moving out we have only received an email from Smile Property Group now (after we had to follow up about the deposit and the interest earned) to inform us that we wont be getting back any deposit or interest. They are billing us R4200 to paint a wall which was never painted before we moved in. They are billing us to replace globes which have never worked, they are billing us for lock replacements and keys which we never had, they are billing us for fuel costs (God only knows why we need to pay their fuel), they are billing us for utilities for May when we had already moved out in April and we were on prepaid electricity but billing us R750 for water when we were averaging R300 per month over 3 years. They are coming up with anything and everything to ensure that the deposit and interest is used up. We actually made contact with the tenant who lived in the unit before us and they did exactly the same to here. They charged her a boatload of money to paint the unit but it wasn't even painted before we moved in so either they pocket the money or the owner of the property does. Smile Property Group has no business ethics and are *****, to say the least. We will not be letting this go and have also reported them to the Rental Housing Tribunal. Avoid them at ALL costs!