Opinion: On illegal agents, Deeds Office and conveyancers

Wendy Machanik from Superstar Strategies writes:

Hi all,

Herewith a letter from a concerned property practitioner at the situation surrounding the pandemic of unlicensed Property Practioners, earning unsolicited commissions & ruining the industry for licensed estate agents.

These illegals can do what they like, charge what they like & the ultimate victims are the legally operating companies and their agents.

The ONLY solution lies in placing the onus on the Deeds Office as well at the feet of every conveyancer to check whether the relevant estate agent who produced the sale holds a valid license, before being allowed to pay out any commission.

On top of this every conveyancer/transfer attorney who tries to register an illegal deal must be placed at risk of being struck off the role. This should be rooted in the code of conduct and legislation.

This is the ONLY conclusive way to track every transaction and so weed out the illegals.

Much like the FICA laws so here too, it must be incumbent upon the insiders who are privy to a transaction to report suspicious/illegal practitioners.

This is at pandemic levels, therefore a “HOT” line should also be established!
Unless the entire industry of registered legal estate agencies stand together & put pressure to bear on the powers that be, the status quo will never change – the EAAB is not capable of bringing this to a head!

Email letters to editor@propertyprofessional.co.za

 

IMAGE SOURCE: pymnts.com

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