Use a registered estate agent when buying a property
Code of conduct gives you legal recourse
Buying a house through a registered estate agent is far safer than buying from a private seller.
Estate agents have to act within a code of conduct as set by the Estate Agency Affairs Board, or face disciplinary action if they mislead clients.
A case in point is that of Lindiwe Ngwenya, who was in desperate need of a house when she met a couple selling “their” house privately.
Ngwenya, a mother of one, said a friend referred her to an estate agent who was selling a disputed property.
It later turned out that the “estate agent” was not registered with the board. He did not disclose to her that there may be challenges evicting the occupants – a factor that came to the fore after the property was sold and registered in Ngwenya’s name.
Today she finds herself paying R4 000 a month on a bond, while also paying R550 for a back room she rents while the illegal occupants refuse to vacate the house she bought two years ago.
Ngwenya said the occupants at 249 Mokopane Street in Molapo, Soweto, told her they would not vacate as they had been staying in that house for the past 40 years.
Her attorney, Wesley Nyama, was unable to evict the occupants as they had threatened to burn his car when he visited the property in 2015, she said.
Ngwenya said she was aware of the Prevention of Illegal Eviction and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act (PIE), which makes it difficult to evict illegal occupants without a court order.
“I am also aware that [the] community would sometimes help the occupants to resist eviction,” she said.
Before signing her contract Ngwenya conducted an investigation to determine ownership of the house, but she did not talk to the occupants of the house.
Wesley Nyama confirmed Ngwenya asked him to evict the occupants, but the occupants threaten anyone who tries to eject them. “The sons of the occupant also mobilised the community to threaten me and I was saved when a community leader intervened,” Nyama said.
Ngwenya has now agreed to take the R20 000 she paid to Nyama and to look for an alternative attorney.
She has warned others to buy through a registered estate agent and talk to the occupants before signing any deal.