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Same land sold to two people

NOT FAIR: Isaac Motloung says the land he has already paid for has been re-sold to another buyer who is building this house on his property. Photo: Mabuti Kali
NOT FAIR: Isaac Motloung says the land he has already paid for has been re-sold to another buyer who is building this house on his property. Photo: Mabuti Kali

Dispute over size of the land

DO NOT believe Remax Estate when they say that you will enjoy a pleasant experience when you buy property from them.

A man from Sebokeng in the Vaal in Gauteng claims that he has had a horrible experience after buying a piece of land from this company.

Isaac Motloung, 47, says Remax Estate and their attorneys sold him the land in January 2007, but later re-sold it to another buyer.

He says the conveyancers , Potgieter & Fourie Inc. of Vanderbijlpark in the Vaal, did not give the deeds office the correct size of the land when they registered it and he only discovered this when he enquired about it this year.

Motloung says his contract shows that he bought 1000m², but his title deed shows only 541m².

He says in January this year, he had a shock when he saw builders building on his land. When he asked them what they were doing, they said they were only following instructions.

Motloung says Standard Bank gave him a loan for R365,000.

"I pay my bond on time so how can Standard Bank sell my land?" he asks.

He says when he asked Remax Estate in the Vaal why a house was being built on his land, staff at their office referred him to their Cape Town branch.

Motloung says before he signed the offer to purchase, he accompanied a Remax Estate official who measured the of land and who confirmed the size.

He says Remax Estate has not responded to his inquiry since January.

"They just allowed the builders to carry on building and the house is almost complete," he says.

Motloung says he notified Standard Bank in the hope that they would intervene, but he was told to deal with Remax or the transferring attorneys.

"I had hoped that the bank, as the financiers, would help, but they have washed their hands of the matter," he says.

Motloung says that he met the man who is building on his property last Wednesday hoping to get the details of the person who sold him the land.

"He is an innocent buyer like myself, but he should at least tell me who sold him the land so I can deal with that person," Motloung says.

Kershia Singh of Standard Bank says Motloung must deal directly with Remax Estate or their transferring attorneys.

"If there is a dispute on the size of the land that was purchased, Mr Motloung needs to resolve this with the seller of the land or the relevant lawyers who assisted with the registration," she says .

Romaine Blankenburg, the marketing programme coordinator at Remax Estate says they were investigating Motloung's matter because their offices in the Vaal has moved.

Consumer Line tried to get comment from the conveyancers who did the transfer for Motloung, but no one answers the telephone and the e-mail address on their letterhead bounces back.

The man who is busy building a house on Motloung's land and who only gave his name as Bongane, says he bought the land for R300,000 about 18 months ago.

He was also financed by Standard Bank, but refuses to give the name of the seller.

"Tell Motloung to deal with his bank and transferring attorney and to stop bothering me," he says.

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