So we shifted on the weekend and month-end of July, 2011. A certain J. Leboho was the agent who showed us the new house, he is employed with 'Just Letting' Halfway Gardens in Midrand, a supposed well connected and large estate agent in the Jo'burg area and possibly in all of South Africa.
There were strong initial signs from the behaviour of this fellow that we shouldn't have continued his guidance in finding a house. Say, he would be curt while showing the houses - a tone that says "take it or leave it, I will find someone else" kind. The most striking trend was how he would show a new house and mention it in a light which was always positive ( which is normal for any agent to do) but would give a distinct comparative analysis of how better it was compared to the last one he himself showed. I mean, it leads one to believe that every new house has something better than the previous he showed and suppose you end up selecting whatever he is showing you currently, there ought to be something he is not telling you as well! Information that could be critical and useful on what is 'wrong' or something essential which is just not there. Finally after being weirdly dodgy he showed us a place which was located ideally, seemed fine but with a few fixtures needing repairs - which he promptly shrugged off as something he would 'obviously' take care of before we moved in!
He managed to bluff for a whole month on the repairs and ended up doing nothing, followed by repeated calls to him and to the house owner etc. He would also not let us re-inspect the house without him being there, pretty much afraid of us contacting the previous tenant. It only begs you to suspect what he was trying so hard to hide!
In the end, he did nothing and the house owner came and repaired every single fixture that needed attention. Calls for one to wonder what Just Letting is in the middle for?! They hardly perform any of the functions that an agent is paid to do!
This agent had managed to put us down, irritate and cut calls on us. So on the day of move-in, even the house was not ready or cleaned and we had to wait till it was done ( by the house owners' personal maid lol... the agency didn't even bring in their own cleaners!). With no agent to talk to as we arrived on shifting day, I was hopping mad with anger. We had a strong verbal altercation with this Leboho chap who was on his worst possible behaviour! No manners, no sense but a weird air of snobbishness for god knows what reason! Now we refuse to deal with him on any account and have requested the house owner to change the contact person - which well we don't know whether he has done or not - but thankfully haven't heard from this s&%%$d fellow!
So if you are in the Midrand area, you might just do some good for yourself by avoiding Just Letting completely! All the headache absolutely not worth it!
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