Beware of broker houses

It began when a staff member in our office wanted to lease an apartment for a year in Sudirman Tower Condominium. The marketing person there, Mr. P, showed us the units available. After negotiations, we finally agreed to lease unit 12 H. But we were told to contact a broker house -- Ms. Gv of GH Realty -- for this particular unit. The proposal was finally faxed to us a week after we had called her several times for it. After that, she asked us to pay a 10 percent down payment. Although we had our doubts towards her professionalism, still we paid the amount to her by cheque, and she promised us that everything would be ready within three weeks.

After her promised time has passed, it turned out that the unit we required was still unclear as regards to its ownership. Everything was a whole mess then, as neither Ms. Gv nor Mr. P. -- who had already resigned -- tried to help us at all. When we tried to call Ms. Gv, she was always out. When we did finally talk to her, she cut off our conversation. She did not bother at all to at least show her responsibility toward us.

On the other hand, all the marketing staff in the building tried to wash their hands of our problem. Even though Ms. R knew about this, she also did not want to get involved in this matter.

Finally, we met someone in the building's management, Ms. A, who suggested we contact Mr. AS, the managing director of Sudirman Tower Condominium. Although it was not easy to talk to Mr. AS, finally we succeeded. He turned out to be the right person, as he immediately solved the problem. I hope this will be our first and last experience.

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