The Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB) is investigating the activities of Pam Golding Properties, Seeff Properties, Wakefields Properties, and Wendy Machanik Properties for the possible improper use of trust funds.
Andrew Golding, chief executive of Pam Golding Properties has confirmed that a complaint against PGP’s Pretoria North franchise had been lodged with the EAAB.
Sunset Trading CC, trading as Pam Golding Properties, was the focus for this investigation but Golding pointed out that the complaint was not related to the misappropriation of trust funds and that the franchise and its agents had the necessary Fidelity Fund Certificates in place.
He said that PGP fully supports any investigation into the conduct of an estate agency. Golding is the president of the Institute of Estate Agents and he said that he expected all estate agencies in the country to now be audited by the EAAB following the collapse of Wendy Machanik Properties in Gauteng.
Meanwhile, Samuel Seeff, chairman of Seeff Properties, has confirmed that a number of the larger estate agencies are being inspected by the EAAB but emphasised that there is a difference between an inspection process and an investigation.
He says that the initial indication he received from Pasco Risk Management – the company responsible for the inspections on behalf of the EAAB – with regard to Seeff was that it was satisfied the agency’s affairs were in order.
However, he was not certain whether or not Pasco had completed its inspection.
He said the agency welcomes the inspections and expects that, in most cases, the inspections would show that the South African estate agency sector is operating within the prescribed legislation.
In a separate development, Wendy Machanik and Bruce Bernstein – the chief financial officer of WMP – appeared in the Commercial Crimes Court on three charges of contravening the Estate Agency Affairs Act and on 116 charges of conspiracy to commit fraud involving R25,2-million.
Machanik was granted bail of R25k while Bernstein had to pay R5k and both had to surrender their passports. Machanik and Bernstein will appear in court again in April this year.
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