TINASHE MAKICHI
At least 44 dodgy estate agents have been nabbed in the past few months following a nationwide crackdown by the Estate Agents Council of Zimbabwe (EACZ) in collaboration with the police as part of efforts to bring sanity to the sector, Business Times can report.
It is understood that the agents neither contributed to the mandatory compensation fund nor met the requirements for having a principal agent.
This means that there is no recourse to justice in the case of a dispute between the transacting parties and desperate home seekers lost millions of dollars in the process.
The cases are now at different stages of prosecution at the courts, while some are still under investigation. EACZ, a regulatory body formed by an Act of Parliament, said the industry was working closely with the ZRP Commercial Crimes Department in a bid to bring sanity in the multi-million-dollar sector.
“We have a nationwide crackdown on bogus estate agents which has so far netted 44 unregistered agents whose cases are at various stages with the police and the courts,” EACZ chairman Nicodimus Kuipa told Business Times this week.
“We have employed a full time compliance officer who assists in monitoring all advertising spaces including online channels to identify and deal with bogus estate agents.”
The Compliance Officer, Kuipa said, also visits all cities from time to time to do spot checks and this past week was in Bulawayo at Tredgold Magistrates Court for trial of one of the bogus agents and the matter was remanded to November 30, 2020 for continuation of the trial.
“All identified bogus estate agents will be prosecuted through the courts as per the Estate Agents Act provisions,” he said.
Recently, more than 70 companies and individuals who have been operating as estate agents, were blacklisted.
But a number have continued operating illegally. Kuipa told Business Times that the council was working on another list of errant estate agents to be blacklisted.
“The public gets defrauded without any recourse in most cases losing their hard earned cash in the process.
EACZ advises the public to deal with registered estate agents for their safety and protection,” he said.
Kuipa said EACZ wants all real estate agents to open trust accounts for the purposes of safeguarding banking clients’ funds.
Funds held in this account will only be withdrawn at the instigation of the seller or buyer as the case may be following required due process.
