Look Out For Property Scamsters

AFTER looking at several houses to buy in Windhoek, we finally found ‘the one’ – a townhouse in the Oryx Grove Complex (Olympia). We found it with the help of a property agent. We liked the house so much that the day after seeing it for the first time, we met at the complex and discussed our 100% interest in purchasing the unit with the owner and property agent as witness to such discussion.

AFTER looking at several houses to buy in Windhoek, we finally found ‘the one’ – a townhouse in the Oryx Grove Complex (Olympia). We found it with the help of a property agent. We liked the house so much that the day after seeing it for the first time, we met at the complex and discussed our 100% interest in purchasing the unit with the owner and property agent as witness to such discussion. Two other people also witnessed such arrangement, being our parents. The arrangement was to put a deposit down of N$100 000 and a 14-day option, in order to give time for our other set of parents (who were on holiday at that time) to have a chance of seeing the house since they were also financially helping us with the purchase. The owner orally agreed to such arrangement in witness of all of us. This of course led to my girlfriend and I meeting the following day with the property agent to discuss with the lawyer such a deposit and option, and eventually contract of purchase. All was well and our excitement of purchasing the house of our dreams was slowly becoming a reality, or so we thought…
During our meeting with the lawyer, the property agent told us that the seller had changed his mind and would like to change the conditions of the option and keep N$20 000 for himself in case such agreement would fall through and no sale was made. As we were indecisive whether to go for this unilateral condition from the seller’s side, the property agent, proposed us another option: that we sign the contract of sale immediately and this would usually take the bank around two weeks to finalise the financing, giving us the 14-day option we wanted, and also then the other parents would be back from their vacation and could have a look at the house as well. The lawyer agreed to this option and it was decided to go the route as advised by the property agent. Monday, 9 February 2009, we signed the contract of sale with the property agent also signing as witness.
She then took it to the owner to have it signed. And that we thought was about it – sale made, house sold… But, nine days later and nothing from the property agent or owner, until eventually we got a phone call from the property agent stating that the owner had decided to sell the house to someone else for another better offer. So now we ask, was the contract ever given to the owner to sign? Were we tricked into a sale for the benefit of the owner getting a better offer to sell to another party? The owner never signed such contract meaning legally there is nothing we can do, but what can the property agent do? The false hope of receiving commission gone with the wind… Why didn’t the property agent follow up on the contract as well? The property agent’s response to all of this was that she was bitterly disappointed with the behaviour and actions of the owner, and that taking him to court would be a long and expensive road to take. We believe that the Estate Agents Board should look into this and try and do something about it. The owner used us (or the contract signed by us) to push up his price, sell it to someone else and therefore showing that dishonest and selfish and greedy people will go behind other people’s backs in order to make a quick buck.
Telmo Vivo
Via e-mail

In an age of information overload, Sunrise is The Namibian’s morning briefing, delivered at 6h00 from Monday to Friday. It offers a curated rundown of the most important stories from the past 24 hours – occasionally with a light, witty touch. It’s an essential way to stay informed. Subscribe and join our newsletter community.

The Namibian uses AI tools to assist with improved quality, accuracy and efficiency, while maintaining editorial oversight and journalistic integrity.