Letter to Take Ithemba Property to the Housing Tribunal

We as the residents of Barlow Park Lifestyle estate, are making this petition to the Gauteng Housing Tribunal to ask for their assistance and intervention as we feel we have exhausted ourselves attempting to engage with Ithemba Property Management, regarding our grievances. This is due to the property management's inability to hold themselves fully accountable for their faults and to consistently act in good faith when engaging with residents. 

The following will provide details on Ithemba and it's stakeholders failure to observe due diligence, their ack of accountability and the less than transparent manner in which they conduct business. To surmize the following will provide a clear understanding on how, we the residents have lost faith in, and question the integrity of Ithemba. 

Grave Safety Concerns:
In Ithemba's haste to finish building the first block of many apartment blocks that will be constructed over the next 3 years, many corners were cut resulting in  less than safe electrical wiring. Residents' lives and possessions have been put in danger time and time again due to electrical fires in  the building. Many of the reported fires started as a consequence of poor wiring and incorrectly fitted stoves. Residents who have been the unfortunate victims of this poor electrical work are then left without a functioning stove requiring them to incurr additonal expenses to ensure that they keep themselves and their families fed. The latest electrical fire reported began when a prepair electricity meter short-circuited and blew up. Had the resident affected not been home they could've lost their possession to a fire. Furthermore, the fire could of spread endangering the lives of those in neighbouring apartments. 
This is a grave safety concern, we especially want to highlight that thus poses a threat to regular residents, the school that is located on the ground level of the building and vulnerable persons such as the disabled, elderly and children.

Aggressive Action: Disconnection of Utilities
Ithemba's failure to act with an appropriate level of due diligence has lead to a few resident becoming victims of fraudulent complaints made against them. This creates a dangerous situation that sees residents being punished for crimes that they have not committed. To add insult to injury, Ithemba's management is often inclined to utilise the aggressive measures to "deal" with these residents. These aggressive measures include fining and disconnecting the utilies of resident before making attempts to investigate to come to a fair and equitable resolution. 
Despite hearing our complaints and concerns, Ithemba continues to selectively investigate complaints creating a opportunities for bad faith actors to exploit the sytem at the expense of unsuspecting residents. 

Billing Process: A lack of transparency
At Barlow Park, we are subjected to numerous fees that greatly inflate the rental amount that was initially advertised to us when we were prospective tenants. Of the fees charged the most egregious is the sewage charge of R704. When this charge was queried by residents, we were informed that the price was set by the municipality however upon further investigation we come to realise that is not entirely truthful. Yes, the municipality sets the sewage fee however they determine it based on the square footage of the property, regardless of how it’s being used – Ithemba charges us to recover that fee at their own discretion.
When asked to provide clarifying details on how sewage was R704 per unit, regardless of the number of occupants inside the unit, management refused to be forthcoming and transparent. This further cemented our distrust in the Ithemba’s ability to charge us in a fair and honest manner.

In the wake of numerous complaints from residents, we recently received communication from Ithemba, informing us that the sewage fee would, as of 1 October, be reduced to R361.88 because of a change in municipal bylaws. However, when asked for details about the bylaws that were changed, for the sake of transparency, Ithemba has been unresponsive and unco-operative. This has left us feeling rather suspicious about the billing process at Ithemba property.

Additionally, residents have noticed unexplained and illogical variances in their billing statements – huge water charges being incurred while residents are away on holiday or significant variances when there has been no significant variance in the use of utilities. The lack of clarity and transparency in their billing process makes it difficult for residents to accurately budget for their living expenses, causing great anxieties and greatly affecting the quality of our lives.

Water Interruptions
As part of their marketing strategy Ithemba advertised to prospective residents that we would enjoy interruption-free access to electricity and water due to the presence of solar panels and generators. Since moving into the Barlow Park building, we have discovered much to our shock and chagrin that the proud and confident claims that were made to attract us, were disingenuous. We are consistently experiencing electricity outages, water interruptions and interruptions to our access to hot water. These unscheduled interruptions to electricity greatly impact the quality of life and our ability to meet work and personal needs and obligations. When attempts are made to communicate our grievances to management, they simply shirk accountability and lay the blame on Eskom or the Municipality. This is especially frustrating as management, on 2 separate occasions, scheduled water and electricity interruptions so as to connect the solar panels to the electrical system and to conduct maintenance on the generators on-site.

Administrative Inefficiencies/ Inaccuracies
Some of the inefficiencies/inaccuracies that residents have had to deal with include, but are not limited to, incorrectly processed deposit payments and rental payments. We do not take issue with the systems errors as, they are to be reasonably expected , we do however take issue with how Ithemba chooses to engage and “resolves” these matters. Ithemba does not make any serious or meaningful attempts to communicate with residents who have been the unfortunate victims of clerical errors. There are no attempts to reach a peaceful and fair resolution that is best for both parties - instead, acting in bad faith , Ithemba will engage in hostile/aggressive escalated action - fining resident or disconnecting their utilities. Disconnection of utilities negatively impacts the residents’ who work from home, remote workers and those who need the uninterrupted for personal or medical purposes, this is especially egregious because the residents affected are being punished without cause.

In conclusion, we have made great attempts to try find resolve however have seemingly not been able to gain favour with iThemba. We find that we have been mislead by prior communications and marketing efforts and have been met with inexplicable levels of hostility, poor communication, bad faith and a mere lack of respect for the people.

Residents of Barlow Park Lifestyle Estate    Contact the author of the petition