Online Reporter
Rutendo Nyeve in Victoria Falls
THE Estates Agents Council (EAC) has issued a warning to property buyers and sellers, calling on the nation to exercise extreme caution and conduct thorough due diligence before engaging in any property transaction.
Investing in real estate is a once-in-a-lifetime decision that should not be rushed, said the council.
The call comes against a backdrop of rising cases of members of the public losing their hard-earned money to bogus agents and fraudulent property schemes.
In an exclusive interview with The Chronicle, EAC chairman, Mr Nico Kuipa, detailed the essential steps for safe transactions and highlighted the protections offered by using registered professionals.
Mr Kuipa urged the public to be vigilant and to leverage the expertise of registered estate agents to navigate the complexities of property verification.
“We encourage members of the public, when they want to transact in properties, that they do enough due diligence in terms of verifying ownership and authenticity of records,” Mr Kuipa said.
“We have estate agents who are trained and experienced professionals who are able to handle such processes and verifications for them.”
He outlined the typical verification processes, which are critical in establishing the legitimacy of a property deal.
“So, typical verifications include going to the Deeds Office and going to the Surveyor General’s offices to check the authenticity and genuineness of papers that clients wanting to sell properties may present to them.”
Mr Kuipa stressed that the gravity of a property investment cannot be overemphasised.
“It’s important that enough and adequate due diligence is done because we all know that investing in a property is a once-in-a-lifetime decision-making process.
“And to end up losing hard-earned money is not easy. To end up losing hard-earned money is obviously unacceptable to anyone. So, it is important that we emphasize that due diligence is carried out,” he said.
Mr Kuipa, specifically cautioned against deals that seem too good to be true, noting that pressure is a major red flag.
“We want to also help the public avoid what appears to be like bargain deals. The moment you are being rushed to conclude what appears to be a bargain deal, then you know that there must be a problem.
“Buying a property must be treated as different from any other smaller transaction. Any other smaller transaction that people may do, for example, buying tomatoes on the market, it is different. It is required that enough time is taken without rushing to conclude transactions.”
Mr Kuipa said there is menace of unregistered, bogus agents who operate outside the law and the council’s regulatory purview.
“Cases of many people losing money, their hard-earned monies, to what are called bogus agents. Bogus agents are people who want to handle the business of estate agents without them being registered by the estate agents council,” he said.
“The estate agents council exists for the purpose of registering and controlling the activities of estate agents. We have gone through formal training and experience in handling transactions.
“And day in, day out, we have got cases before the courts of people who have lost their monies through bogus transactions.”
A key distinction Mr Kuipa made was the safety net available to clients who use registered agents, the Compensation Fund.
“And we also want to tell the public that when they deal with bona fide estate agents, they are protected in the sense that we manage what is called a compensation fund,” he said.
“A compensation fund is a form of insurance, which exists for the purposes of compensating members of the public who may lose funds when dealing with legit estate agents.
“And yet, on the other side, when you are dealing with bogus agents, once you have lost money, you have lost money. You have no recourse to any form of insurance as it were.”
On disciplinary matters, Mr Kuipa reported that the council actively holds its members accountable.
“In terms of registrations and suspensions, I want to report and say that the estate agents council does handle disciplinary proceedings from time to time around estate agents. By the way, we don’t control the activities of bogus agents because they are not registered with us. “They are like, for example, bogus doctors, bogus pharmacists operating out there. We handle the activities of people that are registered with us,” he said.
Mr Kuipa revealed that while the ultimate penalty of deregistration is used for serious offences like theft, the number of such cases has been low.
“Deregistration is the very ultimate end that has to be done, and it has to be done on conduct that is deemed to be unacceptable.
For example, stealing client funds is unacceptable anywhere in the world.
“In general, we have not had many instances in the past of loss of funds to clients through thieving by estate agents. If I remember, in the last three years or so, we have only had one or two estate agents who were deregistered. The majority of agents, four under suspensions.”
To reassure the public, Mr Kuipa provided details on the robust nature of the Compensation Fund, established after the 2019 currency change.
“The fund was established after 2019. So, we have been building the Compensation Fund from 2019 to date. It is made up of liquid cash resources and also values in the form of properties that the Compensation Fund owns,” he said.
