MAIN IMAGE: Adrianne du Toit from Rebosa.
At the beginning of 2019 thousands of estate agents couldn’t claim commission because the Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB) had failed to issue their mandatory Fidelity Fund Certificates (FFC) timeously. To help avoid a repeat, industry body Rebosa launched an online FFC query platform. Rebosa’s Adrianne du Toit explains how it works.
The deadline for Fidelity Fund Certificate (“FFC”) renewals was 30 October 2019. The EAAB has a legal obligation to ensure that all estate agents and estate agency firms who applied and paid for their FFC renewals before the cut-off date, are issued with their new certificates. Failure to issue these certificates timeously, renders these agents illegal and therefore deprived of a livelihood. Agents are not entitled to commission without a valid FFC.
For several years now, the EAAB has failed in its obligation to issue FFCs on time and indications are that this year is no different.
Related reading: FFC backlog cleared says new EAAB CEO
The EAAB has acknowledged the backlog on their website homepage www.eaab.org.za but according to agents, emails addressed to ffc.complaints@eaab.org.za have largely been ignored.
The notice on the EAAB website that informs agents where they can email FFC queries.
How the FFC platform works
In response to agents’ frustration and in an effort to assist both the industry and the EAAB to clear this critical backlog, Rebosa have launched an online FFC query platform which can be accessed using the following link https://www.rebosa.co.za/2020-ffcs-online-query/
We will endeavour to bring each query to the relevant EAAB department for urgent resolve.
We were faced with the same problem in 2017, when hundreds of agents were denied valid FFCs, through no fault of theirs. We were forced to threaten legal action to protect our members and the industry. Eventually staff leave was cancelled and by 24th December, the majority of the backlog had been cleared. We are hoping to prevent a repeat of these extreme measures this year but will not hesitate to act if needs be.
What is more critical is that when a firm is not issued an FFC – every agent in that firm is also deprived of an FCC, which exacerbates the situation.
All agents and estate agency firms who are not in receipt of their 2020 FFC, are therefore invited to log their query on the Rebosa website in order for us to resolve this situation – and to ensure our industry is compliant and our livelihoods protected.
We are hopeful that the current backlog will be cleared timeously but need your feedback in order to take action in time, if required.
