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Homes can't be occupied

FIFTY unhappy home buyers are crying foul after buying houses they cannot occupy - because the land on which the houses are built does not belong to the seller.

The houses are estimated to cost more than R1-million.

And the seller, Willie Conradie, the owner of Servimix 17 Properties, says the buyers are aware that they will have to wait for more than five and a half years before they will be able to take possession of their houses.

Compounding the home buyers' problem is the fact that Conradie has also accused his attorneys, Moodie and Robertson, of neglect despite paying them R492,000 to facilitate the eviction process.

Kwanda Ngumbela, 49, of Jeppestown, Johannesburg, is one of the aggrieved buyers who is battling to recover R100,000 he paid for a piece of land in 2010.

Ngumbela says he responded to an advertisement Servimix 17 Properties had placed in a local newspaper.

He spoke to Conradie's agent, Valencia Scheepers, who later showed him numerous houses, including the piece of land, he says.

Ngumbela says he was shocked when he later found out that the land belongs to the City of Joburg.

"I almost fainted when the deeds office told me that the land belonged to the City of Joburg and that Conradie had no right to sell it," Ngumbela says.

He says he went to the deeds office because the seller blamed them for the delay in the transfer process.

Armed with proof that the land belonged to the City of Joburg, Ngumbela approached Conradie, who then admitted that the land belonged to the city.

"I was in the company of the police when he admitted this and though he promised to refund my money, he has not done so yet," Ngumbela says.

The promise was made a month ago, he says.

Ngumbela says he had saved R200,000 and wanted to build a house rather than to buy a bank-repossessed house.

"But I was still taken for a ride," the father of two children says.

Ngumbela says Conradie had first accused him of not having deposited the money in his business account, but in the account of Conradie's agent.

"I proved him wrong by getting proof from the bank that I had deposited the money into his, not his agent's business account," Ngumbela says.

He says the name Servimix 17 Properties has now been changed to Optimal Business Dealings.

This he believes was done for con consumers who have already paid for the houses.

Ngumbela says he was scared that he might not get his money because the company had moved their offices without leaving a forwarding address or telephone numbers.

"Had I not had an inside informant I would not have located them at their new offices," Ngumbela says.

The company's personal assistant, Ananda Botha, tells Consumer Line that they were having problems evicting the previous occupants of the houses they had sold.

She says they hope to get this sorted out by tomorrow.

Conradie also confirmed that he sold land that belonged to the City of Joburg to Ngumbela, but he blamed his agent, Scheepers.

He says Scheepers defrauded him of more than R500,000 and sold two more properties they did not own to unsuspecting buyers.

"I only received R50,000 of the money that Ngumbela had paid," Conradie tells Consumer Line.

He says his partner had transferred R50 000 to Scheepers as commission, but he is willing to refund the money, plus the interest.

Conradie promised to refund Ngumbela' s money in two installments, the first on Wednesday .

Conradie also confirms that they have moved offices, but he denied that he was avoiding his clients.

He also tells Consumer Line that he will refund the money to Ngumbela because he did not want to sour his relationship with Sowetan's advertising department.

"I have had good relationship with the newspaper's advertising department for the past eight years and I do not want to spoil that," Conradie says.

He says he has 49 clients who have not taken occupation of the houses they had bought from him.

These clients signed eviction letters, which allows Conradie to evict the current occupants within 68 months, Conradie says.

He says his attorneys are refusing to proceed with the eviction process and this compounds the matter.

"They are doing this despite my having paid them R492,000 for the 49 houses," Conradie told Consumer Line.

Moddie and Robertson had not responded to Consumer Line's inquiry at the time of printing.

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