One of the reasons why I've not had time to come on here much lately ...

[Elgee]

Tenant phones and demands instant attention, which I can't give her because I'm busy banking. I told her I'd get back to her asap.

Then get this snotty email:

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Good Morning Laura Gene/ Danielle

We cannot continue this backward forwards – it is becoming extremely frustrating and annoying and now you are too busy so it is not important? The other day no one could answer the telephone either.

I have requested the document to PRINT without the purple so we can print initial sign and scan back to you.

WHAT other copies do you need?

Please be very clear on what you still require and copy both myself and Sean into the emails to avoid this nonsense as we are trying to assist you.

 

my reply:

Quote

 

Hi Debbie & Sean

My apologies if I gave you the impression that you are not important to us. That is very far from the truth, as you have always been one of our most appreciated and valued tenants.

With that being said, there is only one of me and I can only actually do one thing at a time and have therefore to prioritise what is most URGENT of all the things I have to do. This morning the most urgent thing was to send people their municipal accounts which they have to pay by Friday. If I don’t get it to them in time, they can’t pay in time, and then they get penalised.

I’m now done with that, which is why I’m now prioritising you above all the other urgent matters I have to attend to.

To recap what has happened thus far:

• On 18 June I sent you the yearly renewal email. I attached the renewal form (updated version) which is what you have to fill in each year. As with each year, you have to complete that and send it back along with the latest payslip and latest bank statement. The due date for that was the 25th of June.

• You read the email (read receipt) but did not respond to it, so by the 25th of June I sent you a reminder, as month end was almost upon me at which time I cannot work on renewals – hence the due date of the 25th.

• You replied to that, stating that you had computer issues but would sort it out soonest.

• You also sent an email stating “we would be interested in renewing”.

• Later that day you sent me the renewal form, but not signed.

• On the 28th of June you let me know that you still have IT issues but would send the documents as soon as that was fixed, to which I replied that that was absolutely fine.

• On the 29th of June you asked if I’d received the documents, but nothing had come through. You then sent me the signed renewal form. I checked that it was signed but didn’t check everything else as by that time I was fully into month-end and processing and making rental payments was my most urgent task.

• On the 6th of July I check and saw that you did not give your employer’s email address on the form and also had not attached the latest payslip or bank statement. I reminded you of those.

• On the 7th of July you sent me the payslip, but no bank statement yet.

• On the 12th of July I asked you again for the bank statement, which you then sent through.

• On the 13th of July I emailed your employer, cc’ing you in to comply with the new POPIA. He confirmed most of the details and pointed out a few errors on the data you gave us in the form.

• On the 15th of July I drew up a new lease agreement for you, which was when I realised that I’d made a big error in completely forgetting that Sean is also a lessee and should therefore have received all the renewal documents and emails too. For legal purposes it’s company policy that everyone of legal age be listed as a tenant.

• To comply with FICA, POPIA, the CPA and various other Acts which relate to rentals, we MUST have certain things and we MUST keep them on record in certain specified ways. If we don’t, we can get fined massively, lose our license to practice, and we can even receive a jail sentence up to a maximum of 10 years. We therefore do the best we can to comply with everything.

• To that end, I emailed you the preliminary lease agreement to read through on that day (15th) so long just to check everything, but brought the matter up and asked that Sean must please complete the renewal form and send that to us.

• On the 20th of July I received a “NOT read receipt” for the above from Debbie’s email but put it down to the IT problems.

• When I’d not received a reply by the 26th of July I emailed to both of you again and specifically asked Sean to point the email out to Debbie and asked him to send his documents.

• Debbie replied immediately, giving Sean’s cell phone number and email address (the same one I had been using up to that point).

• On the 30th of July I sent a following up email to both, reminding Sean to send his documents through.

• Sean replied, asking which documents he had to send (he did not hit “reply all”, so Debbie was not CCed into that).

• I replied to Sean’s email to apologise for not sending him the form before and told him that I’d sent it to him in a separate email then. I did that, stating the following: Please complete the attached RENEWAL FORM* and send back along with A COPY OF YOUR LATEST PAYSLIP AND LAST MONTH’S BANK STATEMENT. I attached the renewal form to that for him to complete.

• 2 hours later I received an email from Debbie, asking that I send the final version of the lease agreement for you guys to print and sign. I replied that I’d do that as soon as I received Sean’s documents.

• At 4:32 on Friday 30th of July another email came through from Debbie, asking what documents we want from Sean.

• Our office hours are 9am to 4:30pm. By 4:32pm my computer was switched off already.

• I saw the email on Saturday 31 July but I was frantically busy with payments and, presuming that Sean would have received my email, did not think it urgent to reply to Debbie about Sean’s documents.

• This morning Debbie sent Sean’s form and asked what I require.

I was busy sending the water accounts so just quickly checked the form and saw that it was not fully completed (lots of blank areas) and it wasn’t signed either. I’m sure you can understand that I do not keep all this data in my head – not with over 70 properties resulting in MANY renewals happening all the time. I therefore prioritised by stating the most obvious, which was that the form wasn’t completed, but would attend to the rest later.

It has now taken me almost 2 hours to go through all the emails sent and to compile this email.

Whilst I understand that you might be frustrated by a process that’s taken so long, and whilst I fully admit to and apologise for my contribution to the delay in not originally including Sean in the email, I think that your reaction towards me is not entirely warranted, Debbie.

I originally sent the renewal email on the 18th of June already. We’re now on the 3rd of August. I was understanding and patient with regards to the problems you were experiencing, and continue to be. My reminders to you were never rude or overly demanding, in my opinion.

All that needs to be sent is 3 things: renewal form, latest payslip, latest bank statement. Quite frankly, I don’t know how much clearer that can be put than what was written in my emails. It’s also not the first time that you have gone through the process, even though we have to update things as new laws are brought in.

Only once I have Sean’s written consent, may I legally add him to the lease agreement. I can’t change the law.

If he no longer resides at the property, all he needs to send is the non-renewal form.

Once I have one of those things, I can complete the lease and send it to either Debbie, or both Debbie and Sean to sign.

As to not answering our phone: If the phone rings while I am in the office, I answer it. I don’t know what you expect me to do if I’m not in the office when you call.

If I’ve forgotten something, my apologies.

Kindest regards

Laura-Gene

 

I actually got an apology.

And another "so what do you need from Sean?"

 

 

 

[Elgee]

Anyhoo.

How are you all?

Watching the Olympics?

Confession time: another reason why I've been around less than I should. Been TRYING to catch anything I can, because I've been waiting 5 flaming years for this. I love the Olympics. I mean really really LOVE!

Unfortunately they always flaming put it right over month end, when I can't take off work anymore like I used to be able to at my old job to watch it!

 

[Elgee]

And another reason why ... have to work out the new rates for the year for about 45 propertie. Because the Municipality doesn't.

 

 

 

 

[Elgee]

@RyrinThat one's just for you ?

[MashiraSedai]

*snugglebites Mother and hands her a stiff drink* I got a headache reading this... also, Sean is a Trolloc, as is Debbie ? 

[Asha'man Shar'aman]

Light, Mother! That sounds awful. I'm really sorry you have to deal with that. 

[LilyElizabeth]

*hugs Elgee* That sounds terrible! Can't people just be patient?

[Elgee]

Thanks, guys! *loves*

 

The irony is, Debbie is actually one of our better tenants! She's obviously under a lot of stress lately, though, because she's become ... well ... like this. Hopefully things get better.

[MashiraSedai]

I'd hate to see what your bad tenants are like ? bless you, I would not have the patience. Hopefully it sorts out soon! 

[Elgee]

The patience is something I learned from being Amyrlin, to be honest! LoL ... well, there are a lot of really awesome people on here who taught me that everyone has their own back story and their own troubles, and sometimes you need to keep that in mind and just have a bit of empathy.

And sometimes people are just Karens ?

[Asha'man Shar'aman]

5 hours ago, Elgee said:

The patience is something I learned from being Amyrlin, to be honest! LoL ... well, there are a lot of really awesome people on here who taught me that everyone has their own back story and their own troubles, and sometimes you need to keep that in mind and just have a bit of empathy.

And sometimes people are just Karens ?

Very true. But I don't think that gives you a reason to be nasty to other people. For instance, if I had a bad day, I'm not going to come on to DM and be rude to everyone who has a question for me, or a problem that could be solved by looking through information threads themselves, but they didn't. I think you should keep in mind that people are more than what you see, and cut them a little slack, but also keep in mind that their problems don't justify all of their actions. 

[Ryrin]

On 8/9/2021 at 1:49 PM, Asha'man Shar'aman said:

Very true. But I don't think that gives you a reason to be nasty to other people. For instance, if I had a bad day, I'm not going to come on to DM and be rude to everyone who has a question for me, or a problem that could be solved by looking through information threads themselves, but they didn't. I think you should keep in mind that people are more than what you see, and cut them a little slack, but also keep in mind that their problems don't justify all of their actions. 

She’s been Amyrlin for a long time and has mastered all of the duties required. 

[Ryrin]

Sometimes I just wish people would either do their jobs or complete what is asked of them. I’ve gone through much frustration in purchasing a house recently. There were snafus because people either didn’t do their jobs or the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing.

 

There is really a lot asked of people to rent/lease a place in SA. Bank statements????

[Arie]

*hugs* People are the worst. ?

 

[Asha'man Shar'aman]

5 hours ago, Ryrin said:

She’s been Amyrlin for a long time and has mastered all of the duties required. 

I bet. I wasn't saying Mother was in the wrong, I think she handled that situation well (I have no experience in that area though), I was just saying that sometimes people's backgrounds don't excuse their actions (in reference to Mother's customer)

3 hours ago, Arie said:

*hugs* People are the worst. ?

 

That do be the truest thing I've heard all day. People really are the worst. 

[Ryrin]

3 hours ago, Asha'man Shar'aman said:

I bet. I wasn't saying Mother was in the wrong, I think she handled that situation well (I have no experience in that area though), I was just saying that sometimes people's backgrounds don't excuse their actions (in reference to Mother's customer)

That do be the truest thing I've heard all day. People really are the worst. 

I agree with you.

[Elgee]

On 8/11/2021 at 7:50 PM, Ryrin said:

There is really a lot asked of people to rent/lease a place in SA. Bank statements????

 

Because the laws here are completely on the tenants' side, it's extremely hard to evict non-paying or destructive tenants. It's a whole long, expensive, complicated legal route that an owner has to go through. It can take up to 6 months, with a decent lawyer, if the tenant is obstinate.

Agents therefore have to do very thorough back ground checks on tenants to see that a) they can afford to rent the property (ie check that they earn what they earn, that they're employed full time, and that their expenses aren't too much) and b) that they aren't habitual bad tenants.

We also have FICA (the Financial Intelligence Center Act) which has strict guidelines about the data which any business must gather and keep on their clients. We have to keep this in special folders which are easily accessible to FICA agents should they do spot checks on us. This is apparently to prevent financial crimes and terrorism. We believe it's just so that the politicians and their cronies don't have too much competition in their attempt to suck the country dry.?

[Ryrin]

It’s hard to evict here too and can take months. In all my years of renting, I’ve never been asked for a bank statement. Check stubs, yes. References, yes. Credit check, yes. 

[Elgee]

We don't use cheques here anymore ... lol

 

One of the main reasons we ask for 6 months bank statements and payslips is to check that people really earn what they say they earn. Because people lie. We even had one guy fake a letter from his boss saying that he was getting an increase.

[Ryrin]

Not like a check that you sign instead of money. A credit check with the credit bureau. TransUnion. Experian. Equifax. 
 

How are people paid there? Is it all direct deposit or cash? 

[Elgee]

Aah. Yes we do credit checks too, but that doesn't show all their expenditure - just what they owe and pay on accounts.

People mostly get paid via EFT into their bank accounts, except in the informal trade. We usually don't take into account any cash received.

[Ryrin]

2 hours ago, Elgee said:

Aah. Yes we do credit checks too, but that doesn't show all their expenditure - just what they owe and pay on accounts.

People mostly get paid via EFT into their bank accounts, except in the informal trade. We usually don't take into account any cash received.

Ok. That makes sense.