'Beware the rental agencies'
by Volric Rongar
2009-07-10 10:03
As a greatly disgruntled tenant I'd like to share my experiences so that others might learn from my "mistakes".
One of the reasons I chose to go with an agency was because I thought we would be getting professional service. Peace of mind!
I've heard of people experiencing problems with maintenance of property and so on when dealing directly with the owner's so I thought by going to an agency, especially one that just does letting, that I would get professional service and advice with their specialised consultants.
But my experience with the agency was far from that.
I've had problems from the beginning. First, the house that we agreed upon, was suddenly unavailable about five days before the move but they had another identical one in the complex.
Of course, as I was in another province I couldn't inspect it, but I was assured that everything was fine.
House not ready
But everything was not fine. In fact, we had to delay movers by a day because the house wasn't ready. I'm not quite sure if it had passed inspection.
Many defects, which I listed and sent to the agency. I gave them a week to fix the important major problems. It was only about 2-3 weeks later that those started getting fixed. Not even to a satisfactory condition.
More calls to the agency, the "professionals" who can't ensure the landlord does his part.
Their advice: To leave if the property was not maintained. As it contravenes the Rental Housing Act, this supercedes the lease and hence no penalties incurred.
The result: Telling us we breached the lease and hence liable for the remaining months rent, breach of lease fee, commission and so on, amounting to R25 000 approx.
What to do?
The question is, what should I have done? I'm still not sure about the answer despite my research.
They maintain that although the landlord is responsible for fixing the issues, he can do so at any time as there is no specific time period in the lease.
The advice on the various websites is not to move out, but to contact the Rental Housing Tribunal. However, if you feel your safety is threatened - such as the front door not locking properly so anyone can just waltz in - what do you do?
You can't really wait one month if they refuse to fix it?
Are you within your rights I wonder?
Of course, the agency decides that a non-working front door is not necessary to fix. Or if it is, they can fix it at any time?
Taking advantage
Rental Agencies take advantage of people's innocent nature. When reading the lease, and as you are dealing with supposedly professionals, who have branches everywhere, who will give you peace of mind, how many of us really expect a problem? How many of us really delve into the nitty gritty?
And even if we do, if the 'trusted' agent says to you, "Don't worry, we'll sort it out", or "Don't worry, you can do it then just deduct it from the rent", how many of us take them at face value?
Do they really expect us to get everything we say with the agent or the agent says to us in "writing"?
And even if the agent lies to you, there is still the EAAB (Estate Agency Affairs Board), who is in place to ensure there is no misconduct and unfair practice at registered agencies.
But after two weeks they still haven't responded to my email so I'm not sure if they will be all that helpful.
So what were my mistakes? Not asking for EVERYTHING in writing - again I question the practicality of this. Not foreseeing the problems with the lease - though one things the Rental Housing Act will protect you from unscrupulous entities, this is not the case, and also I didn't have a crystal ball to foresee such problems.
Advice needed
The one good thing I did was keep all e-mails and documents I've sent them. I'm currently putting together a complaint for the Rental Tribunal. Hopefully they will make sure that this agency that purposefully doesn't maintain the property will be harshly dealt with, so that others might treat their renters more fairly.
Strangely enough though, the agency that I am currently using, and they do not just do letting, are a pleasure to deal with. Any questions/issues e-mailed to her are responded to by the next day. Minor issues are fixed within seven days. Luckily no major issues yet (touch wood).
If any of you have advice or suggestions, please let me know. Hellopeter unfortunately says that this particular agency does not care to respond. There are a number of complaints lodged against its various branches there.
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