$42m Worth of Real Estate Sector Complaints in 2017
Since 2017, more than $42 million worth of complaints regarding the Real Estate Sector were recorded.
This was confirmed by Consumer Council of Fiji’s chief executive officer Seema Shandil at a joint press conference with Real Estate Agents Licensing Board (REALB) yesterday.She said this was a combined effort by the two organisations and bulks of the complaints were recorded by REALB.
From 2018 till today, the consumer council had received 25 complaints worth more than $300,000.
The two organisations will be conducting a joint roadshow in the Northern Division next week starting on Monday in Taveuni before moving to Savusavu on August 20 and Labasa on August 21. Ms Shandil said the awareness would focus mainly on empowering and protecting the consumers especially those from disadvantaged and marginalised sections of societies with an effort to educate consumers on issues related to the Real Estate Industry.
Also to educate consumers on their rights and responsibilities
Other complaints received:
Ms Shandil said there were different natures of complaints that the council received on year to year basis mostly to do with disclosure of property prices.
She said when properties are advertised in local dailies, it does not come with the price tag.
Not knowing the price, the consumers would be pressurized by agents to buy the property, “this is called pressure selling”. Sometimes the term of the lease are not state, they avoid putting the tenure on the property.
She said the lack of information were given to the consumers causing confusion.
She added that consumers ended up signing the deals without reading the terms and conditions of the agreement.
REALB had terminated license of one agent in the Western Division in 2017, one agent has been suspended.
Bogus agents major issue in the north
Ms Shandil said with the number of complaints received, the highest was found to be involving bogus agents.
Direct deposits were made to agents by the consumers instead of deposits to an organisation or to a trust fund.
“This sector involves a large amount of money which attracts other people to come into as key players so that they can make a lot of money.”
REALB compliance and monitoring officer Vinal Singh said the reason why they are starting their awareness drive in the North was because bogus agents was found to be a major issue there.
He said it was to an extent where some taxi drivers were picking passengers from the airport and directing them to where the properties were which was an illegal act. From 2017 till now there are 16 bogus agent cases with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and two had been charged, he says. He added that on a daily basis, the REALB compliance team goes through different websites to identify bogus agents using bogus names to advertise multiple properties.
Plans to review the legislation:
REALB chairman Abdul Hassan said lack of education by the agents and sales person was a major constrain to the organisation.
Now they would be introducing exams for agents, sales person and managers.
“In completing that they will have a better understanding of the law and how to deal with property issues.”
Mr Hassan said at the moment, there were no qualification requirements for someone to become an agent.
“If you are a sales person for three years, you can become an agent.”
He said they have identified the short comings in the Act, the activities that were against the law which would be rectified and revised soon.
Be warned!
The two organisation is advicing members of the public to be aware of bogus agents.
There are 275 REALB registered sales person and 85 registered agents. All the agents were issued a certificate and an ID card. Mr Hassan said: “Anyone coming to negotiate the price of your property, the first things you have to ask is their ID, check if its valid, some agents continue even when their ID’s have expired.
“This why we making this awareness programme so that we can educate, advocate so when they are confronted by any agent, they would know what to do. “Check with REALB first to see if the agents are registered agents.”