The Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB) plans to hire at least 20 legally and financially trained inspectors who will be tasked with vigorously scrutinising the operations of estate agents throughout the country as part of a drive to stamp out corrupt agents.
Thami Bolani, chairman of the EAAB, was addressing a conference of estate agents in Durban this week. He told delegates that the organisation had investigated six agencies since the beginning of this year and had taken legal action against three agents found guilty of corruption.
He says the agents lost their licences and are now facing criminal charges.
Referring to the type of corrupt behaviour that is taking place, Bolani says that agents are operating without licences and consistently “dip into” trust funds.
He says the hiring of specialised inspectors will now form part of the board’s focus on enforcement of the laws surrounding property sales. According to Bolani, the EAAB has established that at least 4 000 estate agents in South Africa are operating without the requisite Fidelity Fund Certificates.
Earlier this year the EAAB offered agents an amnesty period allowing them to register and obtain their licences without facing any penalties. However, the amnesty ends tomorrow (15 July) and agents will be given another three-month amnesty period to get their affairs in order.
Tryphina Dube, deputy chairman of the board, told agents that the reason many people had not registered with the EAAB was that they could not afford to pay for an annual audit that was required in terms of the law.
She says that of the 37 000 agents operating in South Africa only six percent were black and of the 13 350 principal agents registered with the board only nine percent were black. She says this shows that transformation of the estate agents sector is urgently required.
Referring to the high number of home loan applications that are being rejected by the banks, Dube says that this remains a challenge for the EAAB and claims that it needs to “show the banks that the criteria they are using for granting bonds is unacceptable”.
She has called on the government to assist new agents in setting up businesses and suggested that it should offer new agents a stipend during the first year of work as learner agents do not receive a salary and work on commission only.
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This is such a laugh!!!!! HAHAHA
The staff they do have cannot even issue outstanding FFC that have been paid for over a period of 5 years - Desiré
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