Bogus estate agents’ syndicate

HOUSING fraudsters have hit the Mfuleni and Khayelitsha areas, selling houses without the knowledge or consent of homeowners yet again.

A 42-year-old Bongiwe Maneli almost lost R460 000 when a house she bought from a registered estate agent in June this year was nearly stolen from right under her nose.

When Maneli bought her home she was excited but wanted to do some renovations before she moved in. But according to her estate agent, while she waited to move in, a second buyer entered the fray claiming that he had bought the house for R150 000.

“He refused to say who he had bought the house from but was adamant that he would be moving into the house soon,” explained Khayelitsha estate agent, Zola Mekula.

Maneli was not willing to speak of the incident but confirmed to Weekend Argus that she had since moved into the property.

“This is my house, I am not going anywhere, I bought it and no one will just take it from me,” she said, before referring all questions to Mekula.

“I was given the sole mandate to sell the house, and I did.

“After the transfer was completed, I informed Bongiwe to collect her title deed from the attorney, but by the time she did, the crooked agent with an attorney had accessed our system and managed to get her (Maneli’s) details – they then falsified documents as if she was selling the house that she had just bought in order for them to register the house in the name of the fake owner,” added Mekula.

Mekula also told Weekend Argus that these rogue agents “come for internships at registered agencies, they then learn a few tricks of how to get clients, deal with attorneys, etc, then they leave and set up their own shop,” he explained.

Spokesperson for the Estate Agents Affairs Board (EAAB), Bongani Mlangeni, lambasted bogus agents, saying they were “simply people who want short cuts and it cannot be that there is a legitimate excuse for non-compliance”.

A 39-year-old Delft resident, who declined to be named, suffered financial loss at the hands of bogus estate agents and said she had lost all hope of ever recovering the R180000 she paid for a “non-existent house”.

“I had been looking to buy a house for myself and my children. I had put the word out and a lady contacted me saying she had a house she was selling, she introduced herself as an estate agent and I was excited,” she explained.

“The house I was shown had a huge yard and I was happy that we could even build flatlets. Little did I know that these people were just crooks out to steal money from unsuspecting people like myself,” she said.

The woman met with the estate agent at a coffee shop in Somerset West. “I didn’t think to ask about her office, besides, what was an office going to do, she had the papers, showed me the house and all was on the up and up as far as I was concerned,” explained the mother of two.

Reality kicked in for her when she was not able to get the title deed to the house she had paid cash for.

“I only had a cellphone number and the Capitec account I paid the money into,” she said.

In 2017, Weekend Argus blew the lid on a housing syndicate operating in the Delft, Khayelitsha and Mfuleni areas. The syndicate also involved registered attorneys.

Last year, another couple lost R85000 in a housing scam after they saw and liked a property on Gumtree.

According to a Weekend Argus article at the time, the couple had taken out a personal loan, another loan from the wife’s employer and cleaned out their savings to raise the funds to make the purchase.