Home loan but no home: Liquidated house company costs woman R21k
LIQUIDATED: Imvusa Trading
A Mitchells Plain woman claims Imvusa Trading took out a home loan in her name to build her a Wendy house.
But two months later, she is sitting without a home, and hasn’t seen a cent of the R21 000 that she has to replay.
Dionne van Wyk said she made contact with the construction company to build the house in a family friend’s yard in Tafelsig, and was told a loan needed to be made to secure her home.
“I contacted Imvusa on December 17 and they used my details to get a R21 000 personal loan from Nedbank in my name but I never got anything back from them,” she explains.
“I went to the Nedbank branch in Promenade and they told me the payment was made on December 22 but then I learned in January that the company was liquidated on December 10.”
The 24-year-old mother said she found out about Imvusa’s financial difficulties after she visited their offices in Phillipi, but only found security guards protecting a closed office, and every number she had for the business is no longer in service.
“Two debit orders came off my account for R810 to repay the loan and I reversed both, costing R45 in charges.
“The bank told me after the third debit order comes off, then I can cancel it. I also went to the police and made a fraud charge,” says Dionne.
A former employee of Imvusa, who did not want to be named, confirmed the business was liquidated in December.
“We were not paid from October, so we knew the company was in trouble and in December they told us their bank account was frozen, so I do not know how a loan from Nedbank could have been made.”
Nedbank spokesperson Sarah Mautjana says the bank is investigating the matter and could not explain how money was transferred to a frozen account.
“Nedbank is aware of the client’s complaint.
“We will communicate with the client to discuss a viable solution,” she says.
Dionne is not satisfied with the bank’s response.
“That’s what they’ve been saying since the beginning. I was the one who made them aware of the company being liquidated.
“How can they approve loans to a liquidated company?”
Calls to Imvusa went unanswered.
When the Daily Voice attempted to visit their Philippi office in Ottery Road, security guards posted at the gate refused us entry.