The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Where’s the deposit slip?

Hello Sir. I have an outstanding claim payment from my insurance company. My grandmother joined their funeral policy through her bank. They say I must produce the deposit slip for 2019 when she joined but I only have for 2020 October and 2022. They say I should look for them.

I asked them to ask their Francistown branch as I was depositing there since I don’t have them. They say they don't have the records too. I changed from hand depositing to their account to debit order around June 2022 because I was staying far from the bank. My grandmother passed away last year November and until now I am still waiting for the claim payment. I was paying monthly premium accordingly from the date I joined till October 2025. Please help.

Firstly, I’m sorry for your loss. Many companies need to look carefully at the way they keep records. Can’t this company see that your grandmother paid them in 2019? If she missed a payment that long ago, why haven’t they mentioned it before? Why are they only complaining about this after she passed away?

Obviously it’s our job to make sure we don’t skip any payments but it’s also the job of these companies to keep us updated and let us know if there’s a problem. They’re the ones with huge resources, teams of skilled staff and expensive IT and AI tools that can help them and us. Mostly us, because we’re the people who pay their wages.

I contacted the insurance company and they’re looking into it. I’ll let you know what they say.

What’s my landlord doing?

Hi Mr Richard. I moved into a yard in Mogoditshane two weeks ago and on our second day here we bought water. Firstly it was confusing that we don't buy water for ourselves but the landlord does. So we send money to him and he said the minimum amount is P100, it was confusing because we've stayed in yards where P20 water was enough for a month plus 2 weeks. Meanwhile here it's not even 3rd week and the water is very low.

What guarantee do we have that he actually does buy for P100? He doesn't issue out receipts. We asked but he was very dismissive and it was our first experience since we are new here. When you call he's quick to say he's busy he will call back and he doesn't. Plus, he was pushing for us to pay security fee which is equivalent to rent and we told him we don't have that money. The yard is unfenced and has no gate, it's not safe at all, and it's very dirty there's bushes in the yard side. There are 12 units here and the majority of them say the man is a difficult person and he doesn't listen to them.

I don’t trust your landlord, and neither should you. It’s obvious that he’s trying to hide something. The good news is that he’s doing this to everyone, not just to you. If you all group together and demand receipts for the water and to see the meter readings he’ll find it difficult to refuse.

It’s also extremely important that every one of you gets a tenancy agreement in writing as soon as possible. If, as a group, you can negotiate this, perhaps you should consider the idea of the security fee, but I don’t think you have to. Remember that he needs the rent you all pay every month and if you act together, he might understand how important is to have a conversation with you all. If not, you should think about moving somewhere else.

The lesson is that whenever anyone rents a property, they must have a written agreement that describes how the relationship will work. Without such an agreement, it’s always the tenants that suffer the most.