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- At least 10 families are out of pocket and a place to stay following an alleged rental scam between October and January in which a couple leased a property to multiple families, at the same time, collecting hefty security deposits.
- With signed contracts in hand these families were left with boxes packed and nowhere to go.
- Families were forced to arrange for storage and alternative accommodation in a hurry.
At least 10 families are out of pocket and a place to stay following an alleged rental scam between October and January in which a couple leased a property to multiple families, at the same time, collecting hefty security deposits.
Only after deposits were paid, did the house became unavailable.
With signed contracts in hand these families were left with boxes packed and nowhere to go, when the landlords told them an array of stories of why the house was not available anymore.
Some were told the previous tenants had failed to move out, while others heard there had been a fire in the house that caused significant structural damage.
Devastated, and fearful of landing on the streets, families were forced to arrange for storage and alternative accommodation in a hurry, this at astronomical cost.
Scam revealed on social media
The three-bedroom house, with a swimming pool in Sun Marie complex in Sending Street, Brackenfell was advertised on Gumtree for R11 000 per month by Nikki Gouvias, partner of the homeowner Shane Nolan.
Seeing the ad Melissa Hayes jumped at the opportunity. She and her two children lived with her mom in Worcester and wanted to be closer to her husband who works in Brackenfell. “We saw each other over weekends, and this was a way for us to be all together,” Hayes told TygerBurger.
They viewed the home in mid-December.
“When we got there Nikki was very friendly. She said the house belonged to her and her husband. She said the current tenant was very messy and didn’t look after the place, but he was moving out. I was a bit hesitant, but she assured me she would have the house fixed-up, and even took my children outside to the pool and told them to convince us to take the place. It had good selling points, was well-priced, near my husband’s workplace and within walking distance from school. She said she would love to have us as tenants.”
After deciding to take the house Hayes asked for a signed contract, after which she paid a R10 000 deposit with an agreement to pay another R5 000 before the end of December. They were supposed to move in on 15 January. “Everything was already packed in boxes when Nikki contacted me and told me we can’t move in as she could not get the tenant out. He apparently didn’t want to leave, and she said she was starting an eviction process.”
Hayes then turned to social media to share her story in hopes of securing alternative accommodation. It is here, on Facebook, where other victims started sharing similar stories, and it later emerged that it concerned the same house and the same couple. “After my post more people came forward.”
“I contacted Nikki and demanded my money back immediately. Only after I put a lot of pressure on her did she pay it back. But being conned, the whole thing was a massive shock to me.
“We are now living with family in Kuils River and our kids are sharing a room with their cousins with very little space. We incurred so many extra costs and urgently have to find a new house,” Hayes says.
“I got my money back, but that is not the point. The point is, justice must be served. There are so many sad stories of what they did to other families. Something has to be done, and I really hope police don’t turn a blind eye.”
Trauma of being scammed
Another victim, a pregnant women from Kuils River, was so traumatised she nearly suffered a miscarriage.
“She was about to have her baby when she suddenly found herself without a place to stay,” her mother told TygerBurger.
She too was supposed to move in on 1 December and had paid a R22 000 deposit. “My daughter, her husband and 2-year-old son lived happily in Kuils River, but I found them this house and persuaded her to move there to be closer to me. A few weeks before they were supposed to move in we found out it was a scam. Within days she had to get a new place to live before the baby came. I don’t know if she will ever speak to me again, because this has damaged our family.”
Another woman, who does not want her name to appear in the newspaper, moved from another part in the country to be closer to her family. “I saw the add on Gumtree. It was the perfect place. I paid R22 000, packed up and moved to Cape Town.”
Instead of moving in on 1 January, she was told the she could not do so because a fire had caused structural damage to the house. Her contact was cancelled.
She now lives on her sister’s couch, with all three of her dogs in tow. “It was dreadful. Personally this has been the worst experience emotionally and financially.”
A family of seven sold their house in Goodwood to take occupancy in the rental on 15 December. They went through the same experience, having to fork out R40 000 for storage and accommodation in small living quarters in Panorama.
However, not everybody was lucky enough to get their deposits back, and TygerBurger knows of four such cases.
One of them, Ashley Chetty, is currently living in a Bellville guest house at astronomical cost.
“This is a bad situation. We have been here since 8 January, the day we were supposed to move into the house. I don’t have anywhere to go, and family is just not an option. But I don’t have a choice, as my daughter started school this year. This has been a crazy time for all of us, wreaking serious havoc in our lives. We must now find a new place and pay another rental deposit.”
Some cases dropped
Several cases were lodged against the couple for fraud and intimidation, after some had apparently received threatening messages from them. Some cases were closed after the complainants received their deposits back.
The police’s provincial media office stated two cases of fraud were registered for investigation at Brackenfell Police Station, according to their records.
“Warning statements were obtained in one case, the victim was paid and gave a withdrawal statement,” police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk said.
“In another fraud case against the same suspects the police is in the process of obtaining a magistrate’s authorisation to obtain records or information from a third party from court.
“Sometimes the court will be reluctant to prosecute when monies have been paid back, as these type of cases usually involved an agreement and/or a contract, and can therefore be construed a civil matter. However, each case will be decided on its own merits.”
Van Wyk confirmed one case of intimidation is being investigated.
Denial of scam allegations
Responding to a media inquiry from TygerBurger Nikki Gouvias denied all allegations of running a scam as reproted on our frontpage story ‘Families scammed’.
“After entering into the lease agreement and the vetting process completed, should a candidate’s application fail in terms of them either having a bad credit record, no steady income or bad references from a landlord, the lease agreement would be terminated and the deposit returned,” she said in a statement to TygerBurger.
Gouvias says this was explained to each candidate from the initial point of contact.
“As there was an overwhelming response to the advertisement, the next eligible candidate was contacted by me and the same process repeated. At no point was there ever an exchange of money without documentation in place. It is correct that there were several lease agreements with the same occupation dates as, should a prospective tenant fail to meet the credit vetting process, the lease agreement was terminated and the deposit refunded prior to entering into a lease agreement with the next eligible prospective tenant, so therefore the occupation dates would naturally remain the same.”
‘Unruly crowd’ storms house
Gouvias also denies allegations of intimidation, but in turn accuses some of the complainants of intimidating them.
According to Gouvias a trustee at the complex allowed more than 20 people to enter the property, who she says caused malicious damage to the property and Shane’s car, by “ ... kicking in the doors and gates, torching the front area where the pool is, breaking and illegally entering the interior of the house by breaking the front and garage doors, looting the house, puking on the floors of the room and urinating on the floors.”
She continues to say “certain members of this unruly crowd (lead by a tenant who already received their monies back) threw glass bottles against the wall, leaving glass laying everywhere and attempted to assault Shane and bashed in the windows of his car.”
Chair of the trustees at the complex Christel Pretorius told the newspaper that about 10 people showed up at the house on the said day in January. According to her, three of the couples had legal contracts to the house and could not be refused entry.
“They knocked on the doors but it appeared than nobody was home. The one tenant who was supposed to contractually move in that day decided to have a braai by the pool and invited the others to join him in order to discuss the matter. They did not go into the house,” she says.
“These were decent ordinary people and while there, they obeyed the rules of the complex. We heard no breaking class or banging or bashing of any sort, neither did the neighbours. The gate was off its hinges that day, but we dint see anyone break it down.”
She says she has no knowledge of when the windows of the car was bashed in, but suspects that it must have happened outside of the premises later that evening.
Criminal intent
Gouvias says they had no criminal intent to scam anyone as there is currently a tenant in the house.
“Should there have been any criminal intent, there would not be a tenant at the property. A scam is the criminal intent to defraud another by providing false information, unlawfully taking money without the intention of returning it and/or not delivering an item in question. As there is currently a tenant at the property, the process was fully explained to all prospective tenants viewing the property, documentation was vetted, the owner of the property’s full and correct details were documented in writing, there was constant communication between the candidates and myself and monies were refunded, there is no criminal intent.”
She did not comment on the deposit monies still owed to four other tenants.
The tenants now living at the property contacted TygerBurger over the weekend saying they only moved in a few weeks ago. They paid a deposit in July last year, but the contract was cancelled after Gouvias told them the same story of “a tenant” in the house that would not vacate.
Fortunatley they got their deposit back, and in January this year Gouvias offered them the house again.
“We paid another R25 000 and moved in. Only after we moved in, we learn about what had happened to all the other people,” says the women who wishes not to be named.
TygerBurger established that the house will go on private auction during February.
