{"id":2732,"date":"2021-02-04T08:46:39","date_gmt":"2021-02-04T08:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/propertyprofessional.co.za\/eaab-doublespeak\/"},"modified":"2023-05-21T11:59:36","modified_gmt":"2023-05-21T11:59:36","slug":"eaab-doublespeak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/propertyprofessional.co.za\/2021\/02\/04\/eaab-doublespeak\/","title":{"rendered":"EAAB doublespeak"},"content":{"rendered":"

MAIN IMAGE: Tony Clarke, chairman Rebosa; Jan le Roux, chief executive Rebosa; Mamodupi Mohlala, CEO EAAB<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB) plans to oppose Rebosa\u2019s court order application but will appoint a task team to prevent a FFC backlog repeat.<\/p>\n

Last week 28 January 2021 industry body Rebosa filed an urgent application<\/a> for a court order to force the EAAB to issue all outstanding Fidelity Fund certificates (FFC\u2019s) to estate agents who have otherwise met all their professional obligations.<\/p>\n

Rebosa filed the court application after once again receiving hundreds of complaints from estate agents who found themselves in the new year without renewed FFC\u2019s despite having applied and paid for it\u2019s renewal by 31 October of last year. A scenario that has plagued the sector for years \u2013 a consequence in large part attributed to an ageing IT system which the EAAB promised to upgrade in 2017 but is only attending to now.<\/p>\n

According to Rebosa chairman Tony Clarke numerous appeals in the past to the Minister and Director General of the Department of Human Settlements have been fruitless, and the 2020\u2019s lockdowns only exacerbated the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe processes involved in renewing FFC\u2019s are now archaic,\u201d says Clarke. \u201cThings like manual allocation of payments lead to huge delays and countless errors. The extent of the problem has seen the number of queries lodged with the Board peak at 80\u00a0000 in an industry with only 46\u00a0000 agents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now the time has come for them to be heard. Rebosa claims the EAAB has not only failed to deliver on its mandate of regulating, maintaining and promoting the standard of conduct of estate agents, it has become an active hinderance to their ability to conduct business in accordance with the law.<\/p>\n

Commenting on the litigation, EAAB CEO Mamodupi Mohlala yesterday said that the EAAB will be opposing the application and is currently preparing their answering affidavit. She said the EAAB will be registering their concern at court that this matter was not raised at the bi-weekly meetings they had with Rebosa in October last year (which doesn\u2019t make sense as the Board has until 31 December to issue certificates so agents will not raise a complaint before 1 January. Ed)<\/em>. However, she also said she has established a task team to look into the matter so that they can make sure there won\u2019t be a repeat of this situation (thereby acknowledging a problem to issue all compliant FFC\u2019s prior to 31 December. Ed)<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Two different realities<\/h4>\n

Mohlala since she became CEO in 2019 has on numerous occasions, that is to parliamentary committee, Rebosa and in the press said that everything is under control and all due certificates would be issued timeously \u2013 but her reporting hasn\u2019t always been factually correct.<\/p>\n