MPs lock horns over estate agents bill
MPs on the portfolio committee on human settlements are divided over the Property Practitioners Bill that Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has recently released for public comment.
The bill aims to establish a property ombudsman, who will take on some of the functions performed by the Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB).
The ombudsman, as outlined in the bill, will have the power to demand documents from property practitioners and agencies.
In 2012, the courts ruled against the EAAB more than once when the board requested permission to search Auction Alliance offices countrywide without a warrant after Auction Alliance was exposed for having run ghost bids at its auctions.
The courts also ruled that Auction Alliance executives could not be summoned to appear before the National Consumer Commission.
The board believed that Auction Alliance and some of its employees had violated the Estate Agency Affairs Act. The verdicts not only dented the board’s image, but effectively rendered it ineffectual in enforcing compliance in a sector it was set up to regulate.
The new bill also seeks to ensure transformation in the sector, which the Department of Human Settlements believes is lacking. The department’s data show as little as 3% of the property sector is in black hands.
The new bill will provide for the continuation of the EAAB and the appointment of its board members. It will also provide for the establishment of a property practitioners ombudsman who will enforce compliance and transformation in the sector. Chairwoman of the portfolio committee on human settlements Nocawe Mafu said the proposed ombudsman needed extended powers to request documentation from practitioners and agencies to ensure compliance and transformation.
“The ombudsman will be able to strengthen that [enforcement] function,” Mafu said.
Committee member and DA MP Tarnia Baker said the bill had to provide clarity about the scope of ombudsman powers and what kind of documentation he or she would be entitled to request from practitioners.