Estate agents raise questions on new property act

● Law broadly welcomed, but calls made for improved consultation

Estate agents in Nelson Mandela Bay have broadly welcomed the Property Practitioners Act, which seeks to transform and regulate the industry.

However, some have raised concerns about a lack of consultation with agents on the ground.

The act, which was signed into law by President Cyril

Ramaphosa in September, replaces the old Estate Agents Affairs Act of 1936.

The new law establishes the Property Practitioners Regulatory Authority as a statutory entity to protect consumers.

It also changes the way the law views the property sector and changes the name “estate agent” to “property practitioner”.

In terms of the act, all property companies must have level 1 or 2 BEE scores.

Public participation meetings on the draft regulations that will give effect to the act and set out administrative processes towards its implementation are being held countrywide.

At the Port Elizabeth meeting yesterday, Kobie Potgieter of Remax Independent Properties said little consultation appeared to have been done with the people who actually sold houses, whose input was important when it came to the practical implementation of the act.

“The owners of your big franchises such as Remax and Chas Everitt and others are business people.

“They do not sell houses and I would suggest a committee is set up consisting of people with expert practical experience of selling houses and the problems relating to the industry,” Potgieter said.

She said everyone wanted transformation in the industry and her company was one of the few that had effectively implemented transformation in the province.

Department of human settlements legal head Khwezi Ngwenya, who presented the draft regulations, said the establishment of a new regulatory body to ensure more qualified and reputable people worked as property practitioners was a key component of the regulations.

He said it was important to ensure that consumers were protected, and that no property practitioner would be able to claim commission on a lease or a sale without a Fidelity Fund Certificate, which is issued once all the necessary fees are paid.

Gordon Swart, of Private Property, said he would like the commission structure to be reviewed because if a principal agent was disqualified from getting the certificate, it should not affect other agents in that particular company.

“In normal business, if a CEO is found guilty of fraud that doesn’t really affect the staff, the company continues, people continue earning, but in our industry if a principal is blocked the whole company cannot earn.

“I would suggest that the principal be suspended until he rectifies his problem, but without affecting the rest of the staff and allowing them to earn an income,” Swart said.

Ngwenya said agents had 60 days to object to the draft regulations in writing.

The comments and objections raised at the public participation meetings will be considered by the national department of human settlements before the regulations can go through the various parliamentary processes and eventually be signed into law.