No good deed will go unpunished! (part 2)

During this time we  chatted about what we had done during the 10 years of not seeing each other and I told her about my investment properties in Hillbrow and the CBD, this peaked her interest and she told me that she has been toying with the idea of becoming a Managing Agent. Subsequent to this discussion she offered to "help" me manage my units and I thought it would be a good idea because she was an accountant, she worked for Joburg water and had good inner city connections and knowledge and she could be trusted. Good deed number two!

The next thing she got suspended from work because she had unraveled irregularities and had become a threat to her boss and colleagues. I then introduced her to Dave, my principal (at that stage) who is also a city councilor and he was very keen to help her expose the irregularities - she never allowed him near her evidence.


Now I suddenly became her best friend, I think it was more like her only friend! She now insisted on visiting all my flats and meeting with my tenants, I did not think anything about this and was comfortable doing this. I don't know why she did this but I have always been on very good terms with my tenants and I don't think it would have been easy to interfere in these relationships.

Meanwhile she approached both Dave and I about her managing agent idea and we decided that it would be a very good mix of talents, her accounting and workings of the utilities knowledge, my connections, experience and knowledge of property in the inner city and Dave's property and council knowledge. Dave was at this stage managing a couple of buildings and was struggling to implement a good system. At the same time I had realized that one of my investments was being extremely badly managed and as chairman of the Body Corporate was thinking of replacing him. So, Dave and her went into a partnership and I got the managing agent fired and got her in as the new managing agent. Good deed number three! 

This was sort of a good thing because the previous managing agent was killed a couple of months later in a car accident and the story was that he was forced off the road by his Nigerian drug supplier and that a lot of money in his trust fund had disappeared. Fortunately I had saved my building from this but I had now put it on a course for another disaster!

Things went really well for a couple of months. I was working very hard trying to learn my new career and money was very tight on my side. She, however, was still suspended on full pay (this long vacation lasted nearly a year if I remember correctly!) and she worked on the three buildings. She seemed to be knocking on my door everyday to pop in for coffee and a chat, I was quite stressed about making money and I was still very uncomfortable about the drama in America. She arrived one morning just after breakfast, I had an appointment and told her she could come in but I didn't have time for coffee. I asked her to please stop arriving unannounced and to please just check with me that it was convenient and to please understand that although I was at home I was working and could not afford to be interrupted all the time. This was the trigger!